Tanemon
by MWEH
Summary: A fated meeting after ten-years of being apart... Disguised as a normal guild, a team carries out a secret mission behind the happy façade of the GMGs... Will Fairy Tail be able to stop them from their evil deeds before it s too late? NaLu, GaLe, Gruvia, Jerza, with more... May be spoilers (I ll try to warn before).
1. Chapter 1: New friends

**Greetings reader! Was that too weird? Anyways, I´m glad you decided to check this story out :)**

**This is my first fanfic, so please don´t be too rough on my spelling and stuff - also, english´s my 2nd language. Don´t know if the ratings right either, but it´s better to have it a bit too high than too low - right?**

**Disclaimer: I don´t own anything in this story other than my OCs and the plot (I think that´s going to be the only disclaimer I do). Oh, and I´ll apologise right away for characters being OOC (which will happen, since I´m better at creating characters personalities than keeping the characters to them).**

**Well, here´s the story!**

* * *

_Chapter 1: New friends_

"Natsu, slow down!" Lucy yelled as she ran after him.

"Run faster", he answered as he ran more than 50 meters ahead of her with the distance only getting further.

He didn´t even sound the slightest tired, which annoyed Lucy like crazy.

"I can´t and you only make it worse!" she shouted back as she had to jump over a fallen kart. Fruit splashed under her feet as she landed.

She was low on rent – as always – and had needed fast money. Natsu had picked a fairly easy job, or so they thought at least. Just catch a thief, nothing hard with that. Except, they had now been chasing the thief through the whole town for at least ten minutes and Lucy was beginning to feel exhausted. And it didn´t help that Natsu had dragged down a whole bunch of stuff that all got in her way when she came later. Like the kart, for example.

Lucy stopped to breath and thought. She couldn´t catch up with Natsu, that was for sure. He was much faster than her even when they started on the same time. But if she took another way, maybe she could cut their path and be to help after all? As Lucy thought that she started running again and took the next left. It was worth a shot, and if she remembered correctly, the thief had been taken left all the times he had turned.

When Lucy had been running for a while, avoiding people on the street very effectively and taken one more left she suddenly heard Natsus voice screaming: "Stop, you bastard!"

As she became more secure that she was going in the right direction she managed to run faster. She had been running in a very narrow street and as she came out on a wider one she saw the thief to her right and Natsu behind him. She took Loke´s key from her key ring when everything suddenly happened very fast.

She heard a voice calling out "Now!" and then out of nowhere somebody was flying at the thief from the sky, fist first and knocked the thief to the ground. The thief stayed on the ground as the attacker stood up and Lucy got a good look at her.

The first Lucy noticed was how tall she was. She was way taller than Lucy herself, and not much shorter than Natsu. The second thing was her long, brown hair that went to the waist and the little braid on the left side of her head, the side that was showing to Lucy, and the skull clip that held it on place. She was curvy, but didn't have an especially big bust – not at all as Lucy´s own – and was wearing a strapless dress with heart-shaped top that went to her mid-thigh. When she came flying down it had looked red, but now it looked blue instead. She also had a belt with rivets that hang loosely over her hips. As she turned her head and looked at Lucy, she saw a quite beautiful face with light blue eyes and a few freckles.

"Oi! That was our guy!"

The girl, or maybe young woman was a better word as she looked to be about 18, turned to Natsu.

"Jay! Did you get him?" before the girl could answer a voice called out.

To Lucy´s surprise, the girl turned her head upwards to her right. "Yep, although, it seems somebody else were after him", she turned back to Natsu and flung a hand behind her head. "Sorry, I didn´t know you were after him. I was just told someone went rampage through the town and ruined stuff."

"Well, really I think that was Natsu´s fault", Lucy said as she walked towards the other two and stood beside Natsu. "He always destroys stuff."

"Hey!"

"Well, looks like I got the wrong guy then", she said and smiled bright. "Anyways, sorry about knocking out your guy."  
"It´s fine, you probably ended it quicker, and with less destruction."

"Jay, who are these guys?" the same voice that had called out from the sky spoke again, closer this time. Lucy looked around her to try to find the source of the voice.

"Wow, Vei, they haven´t done anything wrong!" the girl, Jay, said to the voice.

Lucy´s eyes widen as she saw the source of the voice, Vei.

She was a bit taller than Lucy herself, and held two black swords in each hand. She was black as night, except her ears and around the nose area which was a yellowish-white. She wore a cute, white and pleated dress.

"Fine."

As Vei said this, she suddenly disappeared with a little poff. As Lucy looked down, she saw a now white Exeed with slightly yellow fur, and black ears and nose area instead. Her dress was now black and she stuck the swords, that now were knives, into a belt Lucy hadn´t noticed.

"Just like Lily", Lucy said to herself.

"Shall we go then, Vei?" Jay asked.

Jay started walking away from them and Vei fast caught up to her.

"Wait!" Lucy called out. Jay turned and looked at her questionable. "You just helped us completing our mission. Let us buy you lunch."

Jay smiled big at the words ´buy you lunch´. "That sounds great – I´m broke at the moment!"

"We just need to drop this guy of", Lucy said and looked at Natsu who looked to the ground with empty gaze. "Natsu. Natsu! NATSU!" He looked up at her startled. She was actually very shocked over the fact that he hadn´t said anything as she talked to Jay. "Take the guy and let´s go get the reward."

He easily scooped up the guy and walked away. Lucy looked after him for a sec, surprised that he didn´t call neither hers nor Happy´s name. When she thought about it – where were Happy anyways? She turned back to Jay and got the answer. Happy were happily talking to Jay and Vei, praising Vei because she could do like Lily.

"Shall we go then…?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah, sure. Oh, I´m Jailine by the way, but just call me Jay. And this is my best friend, Vei."

"Vei, what a silly name!" Natsu suddenly called out.

"We prefer it before Venomous", Jay just answered in a regular tone.

" Nice to meet you guys, I´m Lucy, he´s Natsu and that", she pointed at Happy, "is Natsu´s Exeed, Happy."

"Aye!"

"Come on Happy, let´s go already!" Natsu called out.

"Aye, sir!" Happy flew away to join Natsu in the front.

"We better get going to then", Lucy said and looked to Jay. Who wasn´t there. "WHAT?"

As she looked in the direction Natsu had went, she saw that Jay were already by his side.

"Are you coming Lucy?" Jay called out.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Lucy ran to catch up with them.

They were sitting in a rather small restaurant eating. Happy had a fish, Vei some bread, Lucy a plate with salad and the other two… well, let´s just say that they were probably going to make them broke.

"I´m sorry for eating so much", Jay said. "I know it´s really rude and papa really raised me better – but I haven´t really eaten since yesterday."

"No, it´s fine. I´ll just use the money that´s left of the reward after paying the damage Natsu caused."

"WHAT? But how are we going to buy our food?!" Lucy had eaten enough times with Natsu to understand what he said even with his mouth full with food.

"You have food", Lucy said, "and besides, Jay caught the thief, not we, so the reward should really be hers."

Natsu just mumbled some things about him catching the guy eventually if she hadn´t butted in, and Lucy ignored him. She looked at Jay to ask her a question when something caught her eye.

"What´s that?" she asked and pointed to the bracelet at her wrist.

"My lucky charm. Papa gave it to me just some days before he disappeared."

"Your dragon disappeared too?" Natsu suddenly asked her. And she nodded. "When? Was it 7th of July year X777?"

She nodded. "How did you know?"

"´Cause that´s when Igneel left too."

"He´s a fire dragon, right?"

"How did you know?" Lucy asked surprised.

"Because Natsu smells like fire."

"Why do you smell so weird?" Natsu asked her. She looked at him questioning. "Your dragon scent is mixed with another scent."

"It might be because I´m not simply a dragon slayer, but also…"

"Is that a tooth?" Natsu stared at her bracelet. Lucy wasn´t really surprised that he suddenly changed subject, he got an answer and that was good enough for him even if she wasn´t finished.

"Yes. It´s scales from papa and my first fang. It protects me."  
"It´s quite beautiful", Lucy said as she looked at the bracelet.

And it was. The fang was shiny and white, and the scales shifted in two different shades of green, one more blue than green really.

"I think so too", Jay said with a smile and this time Lucy actually noticed that she had fangs.

Then Jay started eating again as she had stopped to answer their questions. Lucy was torn between her curiosity and good manners – she really wanted to know more about Jay and her magic, but she didn´t want to snoop either. She decided to wait until the subject was brought up again.

"What´s that on your hand, Lucy?" Jay asked.

"What do you mean?" Lucy looked at her hands, but couldn´t understand what she was talking about.

"That mark. I´ve noticed Natsu has a similar on his shoulder."

"You mean our guild mark?" Lucy asked, confused.

"Is that what it is?" Jay asked and smiled. "Cool."

"You´ve never seen one? But aren´t you in a guild?" Lucy asked, very surprised.

Jay shook her head. "What guild is it?"

"Fairy Tail", Happy said, proud.

"Fairy Tail… it sounds familiar", Jay mumbled, as she looked deep in thought. "Oh, right? Didn´t you guys win something? It was a big ruckus about that, wasn´t it? Something about you guys shocking everybody and all that?"

"We won the Grand Magic Games, yes."

Jay smiled. "Grand Magic Games. I think I´ve heard that before. It was kinda big, right?"

Natsu, Happy and Lucy all stared at her, although Lucy was still able to answer her. But had she seriously never heard of the GMG?

"It´s kinda big, yes. It´s a competition to decide which guild´s the strongest in Fiore."

"And you guys won?" Jay looked at them with big eyes. "That´s SO cool! You must be really powerful!"

"Well, not me maybe, but Natsu, Gray, Erza, Laxus…"

"Don´t look down on yourself, Lu!" Jay said fiercely. "I feel that you are strong as well!"

Lucy blushed a bit. But she was also quite surprised. _´Lu´? _

Jay was very familial, even though the just recently met she had given her a nickname. Lucy didn´t mind really, but it was a bit of a surprise. But she guessed that was just how Jay was.

"You don´t have a guild?" Natsu asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I´ve just haven´t really met the right people. But I would like to join a guild one day, I think."

"Then, why don´t you come with us to Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked. "Maybe you like it there?"

"Seriously?" Jay looked at the surprised, her eyes widen. "You mean that?" As they nodded, she laughed happily and said: "I would love to! You hear that, Vei? We´re going to Fairy Tail!"

The train ride back to Magnolia was very comfortable, with Jay there who had put Natsu to sleep with her magic, Lucy could sit in silence and read. Lucy had given Happy a fish, which made him shut up too as he after that fell asleep as well. And Jay, whom had been sitting still, looking out the window and petting a sleeping Vei in her lap, soon fell asleep as well, which gave Lucy time to finally read out her book, because without Natsu´s constant groaning and complaining, and without Happy´s comments about her either being heavy – a hidden message to insult her for being fat, as she saw it – or saying that she liked Natsu – which was absurd right, because they were partners and besides, Natsu was way too dense to ever feel the same, so it would be very stupid and idiotic for her to feel that way – she could finally concentrate on her book. When she was home she couldn´t concentrate because Natsu and Happy would barge in, snooping around, just being extremely annoying or tell her that they had a mission. And at the guild, Natsu and Gray would start a fight, or Natsu would come with a mission again, or Mira would ask her about how things were between her and Natsu… well, basically, you could say that Natsu would disturb her wherever she was.

She realized that she had been reading the same sentences about seven times and sighed as she closed the book.

_Guess I can´t even concentrate when Natsu doesn´t even disturb me._

A gasp made Lucy look up from her thoughts and turn her head to her left, were her travel buddies all were. Jay looked straight ahead with an impression less face and pain in her gaze.

"Jay?" as said girl looked at her, Lucy thought she might saw a tear before Jay rubbed both her eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

She nodded. "Don´t worry. It was just a nightmare."

Lucy had the feeling that it was a bit more than _just a nightmare_, but didn´t push her. She still felt that she wanted Jay to tell her, so she said: "I´ll listen if you want to talk to me, okay? We´re going to be nakama after all, and maybe even more important – we´re friends."

Jay smiled. "I´ll remember that. Thank you, Lu."

Lucy smiled. "It´s nothing you have to thank me for."

A voice called out saying that Magnolia Station was next, and Lucy thought about whether they should wake Natsu or not, but Jay said it was better to wait until the train had stopped and then they could help him to get off if he still was nauseas. They packed their stuff and Jay woke Vei, who woke Happy. When Happy saw that Natsu was still asleep he said he could carry him off the train, since he wasn´t as heavy as Lucy, which made Lucy try to hit him and screamed something nicer than "you stupid cat" but with mostly the same message. Lucy´s screaming woke up Natsu, who complained at Lucy for being noisy, before he realized he was on a train in motion. Before he could throw up however, Jay knocked him down by using her magic. She was afraid he was about to throw up at Vei, who she would have real problem with stopping from hurting him bad.

Happy actually carried Natsu off the train as he said he would when they had reached the station and when off the train, Jay didn´t even have to wake Natsu, as he when he felt the smell of food woke up again and claimed he was hungry.

Lucy shook her head. "Come on, we´re going to the guild Natsu. Eat there."

Natsu didn´t really listen to her, but at least he bought something to eat at the way. When they reached the guild he was since long finished with it.

Lucy looked at Jay to ask her what she thought about the guild, but the brunette just stared with big eyes at the guild and before Lucy even got a chance to ask her what she thought she called out: "This is AWESOME!"

As she said this, she flung her arms to her sides in a fast, but big and clumsy motion, successfully hitting both Lucy and Natsu, making them fall to the ground, Lucy by the power and Natsu mostly because of surprise since he had looked at another direction.

"Oops.."

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**So, that´s the first chapter. I hope you liked it. It´s not really a cliffhanger, but I decided that I would prefer to end it there, even if I thought about ending it earlier, but I wanted to end it there. Would love to know what you think - too long, short, boring, etc.**

**Next chapter will be posted when I´ve finished it and I know someone have read this one and would like to read more: so if you want that, rewiev or follow, I guess :P So until next time, have a continued good morning/day/afternoon/night/life (whatever´s most fitting for you) and I´ll try to get next chapter ready ´til I´ve got a reader :P**

**Oh, right two things: sorry for the bad cover, but I just have zero artistic talent and also the story will (hopefully) be about kinda many of the FT members, so it was hard to find a fitting pic. And the other thing I wanted to say was that I hope that the characters isn´t to much out of character. I tried to not change them too much, but I have the feeling I didn´t do an especially good job... So sorry, but I hope you think it´s fine anyways.**


	2. Chapter 2: Fairy Tail

**Hello! So, it has been a while - not very long thoug - and as promised, I have now updated after getting a review that said I should update.**

**Review: **Kuroi (Guest): COOL! pls update soon :)

**Answer: Thanks for reviewing, and as you wish I have updated. Too bad that you are a guest though, as I have no way to let you know that I updated. Anyway, thank you _very _much for reviewing, and if you are a member/ ever join this page let me know, as I in that case have a little favor to ask of you. I will have like small "competiotions" where you get to chose some things in the story - and as first review, you´ve won.**

**As I said in the answer, I will have small "competiotions" where the winner will get to choose some things in the story - like, I´ll tell them something and they will decide it. I will PM the winner, so it will be a secret who chose what. But I can say now that the next winner will be the 5th reviewer, and depending on if I get some readers, the number might will come to be a little further a part - for exampel, not every fifth.**

**Okay, so next chapter will continue down there, but I´ll tell you that it isn´t very long. I´ve also realized that the first chapters are a little boring and that much doesn´t happen - but just wait, the first chapters is a little of an introduction to the story (I guess you could call them that), but the story will (at least I think it does...) get more exciting.**

**Well, enough blabbering from me - continue to read!**

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_Chapter two: Fairy Tail_

_Lucy looked at Jay to ask her what she thought about the guild, but the brunette just stared with big eyes at the guild and before Lucy even got a chance to ask her what she thought she called out: "This is AWESOME!"_

_As she said this, she flung her arms to her sides in a fast, but big and clumsy motion, successfully hitting both Lucy and Natsu, making them fall to the ground, Lucy by the power and Natsu mostly because of surprise since he had looked at another direction._

"_Oops..."_

* * *

Jay turned around and looked at them. Natsu was already standing and gave her a questionable look and Lucy rubbed her butt as she raised.

"Ouch…"

"Sorry", Jay said as she smiled at them to show her regret and put her hand behind her head. "I´m so clumsy!"

Lucy smiled back at her. "Don´t worry about it, it´s fine."

Jay smiled even wider – Lucy was so nice to her – and then spun around to look at the guild again. "It´s so big, do you have many members?"

"We had really many before, but we lost members during the seven years when some of us disappeared", Lucy explained.

Jay nodded, quite fascinated. She had never decided to check out any guild before, even if she had been invited to others, so she didn´t know what to expect.

"Let´s go already, I´m hungry", Natsu complained.

He didn´t wait for an answer, just started walking and kicking the doors open.

"WE´RE BACK!"

Lucy and Jay wasn´t far behind. Some voices welcomed them. When the doors had opened Jay discovered it was quite calm in there, which surprised her after the stories Lucy had told her.

"Oi, flame brain!"

A raven-black haired man only wearing black slacks approached them.

"What did you call me, ice princess?!"

"Looking for a fight, retard?!"

"Hell, yeah stripper!"

Natsu threw the first punch making the raven-haired guy flying in to the guild. Natsu then ran after him in and Lucy pulled Jay inside and to the bar.

"We better stay out of it, it will soon escalate to a guild brawl", Lucy explained.

Suddenly a chair came flying in their direction. Lucy yelped and ducked, Jay simply leaned to the side and followed the chair with her eyes. Her eyes widened as she saw the chair hit the white-haired girl behind the bar in the head. Said girl didn´t even react.

"It´s man to defend their sister!" a voice, a man, called out and Jay turned to see a big, muscular guy with white hair approach the fighting Natsu and Stripper. "Beast Arm; Black Bull!"

As the white-haired man called this out, his arm changed. Jay watched fascinated as he punched the two fighting guys, sending them flying into some tables and engaging others in the fight as well.

"We can´t stay here!" Lucy exclaimed and Jay looked at her as she got up. "Come on."

Lucy took her arm and dragged her to a table. Under the table sat a petite girl with blue hair, reading.

"Mind if we hide with you, Levy-chan?"

The girl didn´t answer, but shook her head to say that she wouldn´t, without her eyes leaving the pages. Lucy got down on all four and crawled under the table, sitting next to her and reading over her shoulder.

"Don´t you want to join, Lu?" Jay asked, surprised.

Lucy stared at her, eyes wide in horror. "Are you crazy?! I´ll die!"

Jay gave her a questionable look. "It´s just a fight, Lu. It´s fun."

Lucy shook her head. "It´s dangerous. They are way too strong for me. Are you crazy?!" Lucy called out as Jay started to walk against the fight. "You can´t join!"

"Why not?" Jay looked at her and smiled brightly. "It´s fun!"

And before Lucy could answer, Jay turned away and ran to the fight in the middle of the guild. As she reached it, she immediately joined, punching the closest person, which was a tall man with long black hair and piercings. As he hadn´t expected the punch, he flew into the middle of the fight were Jay just could see Natsu and the stripper, still fighting each other.

"Get out of my way, scrap-metal bastard!"

Natsu punched at the pierced guy and he punched him too. They started exchanging blows, but Jay had already turned away as she was about to get hit by some guy falling backwards.

_This is sooooo awesome! _Jay thought as she jumped away from the falling guy and straight into some other person. She didn´t have the time to see who she hit with the kick (she had turned her body in the air) before she received a blow from the side sending her unbalanced body flying to the side. She didn´t fly far, but into the closest table were a scarlet-haired woman in armor was eating a strawberry-cake. For a moment, Jay felt as if the time stopped since the guild got silent – though time didn´t stop as she still was flying through the air and then hit the table making the woman´s cake flying in the air, plate and all.

"We´re all gonna die!"

_Was that Natsu? _Jay thought.

She wasn´t really too sure about what happened next, how she did it or why she did it. But her body instantly got up and she jumped over the table towards the plate. She hit the floor on her hip, but didn´t take her eyes off the plate as she slid along the floor stretching her hand out for the plate. It landed in her hand just before it would have hit the floor.

"My cake!" The armored woman appeared and snatched the plate out of her hand. "You saved my cake!"

Jay didn´t really know what to answer since it kind of had been her fault that the plate almost had hit the floor and the cake would have gotten ruined. As the rest of the guild sensed they weren´t in danger anymore, the fight started again. The woman suddenly turned her brown eyes towards Jay and gave her a glare that made her shiver.

"Lucky for you, you caught my cake", she said and then she returned to her spot to continue to eat it.

_Scary… _Jay thought.

She got up and thought about whether she would join the brawl again or not and find Lucy, when a voice called out: "Shut it, brats!"

A giant hand showed up and smashed the fighting guild members under it. As Jay looked at the pile on the floor she tried to see if any girls had joined, but couldn´t find any.

"I have an announcement to make", same voice that just had screamed at them to shut up continued.

Jay turned to the source of the voice. A short, old man was standing on the bar next to the white-haired barmaid who leaned against the bar with a sweet smile on her face.

"This year´s GMGs are coming up, and as the winners from last year we need to decide whether we are going to participate to defend our title this year, or not."

Everyone was listening to the old man and Jay felt very strong magic ability from the man. She had gotten instant respect for the man as he had been the one to knock all the members who had been fighting to the floor. With one hand. It was one _gigantic _hand, but still. Impressive.

"So I wanted to ask you; are you brats interested in participating this year?"

It was silent for a moment. Whispers like: "Is he seriously asking?" went through the crowd.

"Do you really need to ask us that, Master?" the scary woman said.

"I´m getting all fired up!" Natsu exclaimed with a burning fist in the air.¨

"Let´s defend our title!" the stripper said.

"It´s MAN!" the white-haired mountain to man agreed.

More and more voices called out, agreeing to participate.

"Alright brats, you´ll have the next weeks to prove you want to go as I´ll consider who will go", Master said.

As the master then sat down cross-legged on the bar and brought a cup with sake to his lips, everyone understood that he was finished, people started chatting, drinking and some went to a billboard, which Jay saw was called "request board".

"We should talk to Master", Lucy said behind her. Jay turned to her. "So you can join."

Jay nodded. "Okay."

They were just about to go when Natsu showed up in front of them "Hey, Luce, let´s go on a mission so we can show gramps that we should participate!"

"I need to talk to Master first", Lucy answered.

"Why do you need to talk to Master, Lucy?" the scary woman approach from the same direction as Natsu had. The stripper was behind her, still just wearing pants.

"I need to take Jay to him."

"Who´s Jay?" the stripper asked.

"I am. Full name´s Jailine Hyacintho, but I prefer Jay", she smiled at the two others. Then a thought suddenly hit her. "Lu, have you seen Vei?"

Lucy thought for a short while. "No, why?"

"I haven´t seen her since we were outside…" Jay was starting to get worried, she knew the Exceed could take care of herself. "What if she got hit by a chair or something?!"

"Who´s Vei?" the scarlet-haired woman asked.

"She´s…"

"Jay!" Vei called out from behind her, cutting of her sentence.

"There you are! Where did you go?!" Jay turned to her.

"Happy introduced me to the other Exceeds in the guild. I told you that. But I think you might were all up in the fight."

Jay gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry. But I´m glad you´re okay."

"You thought I would get hurt?" Vei asked, surprised. "I can take care of myself."

"I know. I was more worried about you hurting someone else…"

"But weren´t you worried she was going to get hit by a chair?" the stripper asked.

"Yes, but I wasn´t worried that Vei would get hurt by it. I was worried that she would have hurt the one who threw it."

"So you´re a Dragon Slayer?" the stripper asked.

"Yep. But I´m curious, how many Dragon Slayers do you have here, stripper?"

"Stripper?!" the stripper called out shocked while Natsu just cackled.

"Well, I heard Natsu call you that and you haven´t told me your name", Jay said, confused by his upset face.

"You are right, how rude of us", the scarlet said. "I´m Erza Scarlet and he´s Gray Fullbuster. I´m a re-equip mage and he´s an ice make mage."

"Nice meeting you", Jay said, smiling brightly at them and Erza smiled back.

"To answer your question, we currently have four Dragon Slayers in the guild", Erza said.

"Four?" Jay frowned.

"Yes."

"But… I only smell three. And there´s that smell that I´m not sure about… It smells like a Dragon Slayer, but not quite."

"Well, if you are correctly we have three Dragon Slayers who was taught the magic by dragons and then we also have one who got his from a lacrima", Lucy said thoughtfully.

"That´s why! But still, three Dragon Slayers and one lacrimaDragon Slayer, that´s so awesome! You must be a really powerful guild!"

"We won the GMGs…" Erza said surprised.

"I know, Lucy and Natsu said that, but still, it´s no good measurement for me as I don´t know anything about them."

Both Gray and Erza stared at her.

"Can we go on a mission already?!" Natsu complained.

"Why don´t you guys go pick one and I´ll introduce Jay to Master", Lucy said.

"I´ll join you", said Erza.

"Well, we can´t let them chose a mission together…" Lucy said.

"Why not?" Erza asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well…" Lucy started, but Natsu interrupted.

"What did you say, droopy eyes?!"

"You heard me, squinty eyes!"

"DO I HEAR FIGHTING?" Erza gave them the same glare she had given Jay, only worse.

"No, Erza, not at all, we´re best friends, see?" Gray said as they both had thrown their arms around each other´s shoulders.

"AYE!" Natsu said, sounding like Happy.

"Good. Now pick a mission", Erza said, still glaring at them. As they had started walking away, Erza turned back to the girls again. As soon as she had turned her back they had begun fighting again. "Shall we go?"

Without waiting for an answer she simply grabbed both girls and dragged them after her.

* * *

**Please let me know what you think and such. I am thinking about updating like once a week - I don´t promise anything though - as I´ve realized that more people might see the story if I update more frequent. I have a couple of chapters done, so I might be able to do it. But I also have a lot of things going on, so I might not - as said: no promises! Oh, and I think I forgot to tell you up there, but the chapters will get a longer, these first two haven´t been especially long, I know, but the third chapter is longer than this one, and I think the fourth might be even longer than the third - so just wait and I´ll give you more to read.**

**Oh and two things that probably doesn´t concern any of you - 1st, changed the sum, so I hope it´s a little better now and more informing, and 2nd, I´m probably going to change the image. But to do that, I have to ask a friend of mine - who actually can draw - to draw it for me as I personally suck at it...**

**See ya´ next chap!**


	3. Chapter 3: Missions and Members

**Finally it´s "the next week"! I had such a problem _not _updating in the weekend. I really wanted too, but I don´t think I can update more than once a week because if I do I´ll run out of chapters and stress over it cause I can´t get my chapters ready.**

**I´m very sorry, I thought I updated this monday, but I didn´t... so here it is, a bit late...**

**Review:**

**Well, I´ve already taken care of that.**

**I might as well tell you guys here: if you are french and would prefer to read this story in french instead, talk with LiGHTNiNGFAiRY59 (is that correct...?) as she is translating it on a blog.**

**That´s all I need to say, I think, so here´s the next chapter:**

* * *

_Chapter 3: Missions and members_

"_Good. Now pick a mission", Erza said, still glaring at them. As they had started walking away, Erza turned back to the girls again. As soon as she had turned her back they had begun fighting again. "Shall we go?"_

_Without waiting for an answer she simply grabbed both girls and dragged them after her._

* * *

"What about this mission?" Droy asked Levy and Jet.

Levy took the paper out of his hand and read it. _Doesn´t seem too difficult, _she thought. She nodded to show that she wouldn´t mind it. Jet took the paper out of her hand to read as well.

"Shut up, ash brain, we´ll take this mission!"

"No, ice princess, this one!"

"That one´s stupid, this one´s much better, retard!"

"Wrong again, stripper!"

"Who are you calling a stripper?!"

"The one without any pants, idiot!"

Levy rolled her eyes. Natsu and Gray ad been going at it for the last 10 minutes, since Team Shadowgear had gotten there, and they were still arguing about which mission they would take.

"It seems good", Jet said, making his team mates look at him. "But we´re one short. They are requesting one more mage."

Levy thought for a moment. "We can ask Gajeel? He has joined us before."

The other two nodded, and even though Levy got a weird feeling from the two guys, she shook it off and went over to Gajeel, calling his name as she walked.

"What ya´ want, shrimp?" Gajeel said between chumping down iron.

Levy´s face felt warm, due to anger for his stupid nickname, and she gave him a glare. "We´re one short for our mission, want to join?"

Gajeel spit out a rusty piece of the iron he had in his mouth. "I´m busy, shrimp."

Levy nodded, even though she was pretty sure he wasn´t. "Oh well, I´ll just ask someone else then."

She started to walk away, thinking about whom she would ask, when she suddenly felt two hands around her waist and then she was carried towards the guild doors, slumped over Gajeel´s shoulder like a sack of potato.

"Fine, just stop nagging me already. I´ll join, just to get you to stop insisting."

"I never did", Levy mumbled grumpily. She knew she didn´t have anything to say against him carrying her like this – he wouldn´t let her down anyways.

"Jet, Droy!" she called and saw them first stare at her and Gajeel, where they were almost out of the guild, before they set off, running.

"What can I do for you?" Master asked when they approached him.

"We have a girl here who wants to join the guild", Erza said formally and stopped with the others behind her.

Jay straightened up when Erza had let her go and Master turned his eyes to her.

"Nice to meet you", Master smiled at her as he said that.

"Same to you, Master Makarov", Jay said and bowed a little.

"So what´s your name, child?"

"Jailine Hyacintho. And this is Vei, my Exceed", Jay said gesturing to Vei who just arrived, flying after them.

"And you want to join this guild?"

"Yes."

"May I ask why?"

Jay thought for a brief moment. "I don´t really know why. It´s just something about Fairy Tail. Like the proud in Natsu´s and Lucy´s voices when they told me about it. The connection I feel here, between the members. It´s little things like that, but hard to put your finger on."

Makarov nodded, seemingly pleased with her answer.

"And, besides that, this guild is just awesome", Jay said with a laughing smile.

That comment made Makarov laugh a little and he smiled back at her. "Erza, Lucy, why don´t you take her to Mirajane and get her a mark? I have bills to pay", Makarov got a depressed look on his face before he once again turned his eyes to Jay. "I will have to talk to you later, so don´t go anywhere."

"Got it, gramps", Jay said and smiled before Makarov jumped off the bar and went further into the guild.

"Well, let´s go to Mira then", Erza said firmly and once again dragged them after her.

As they approached the bar, the white-haired beauty behind smiled kindly at them.

"Mira, we have a new member. Two, new members", Erza said and let go of the girls.

"Nice to meet you, I´m Mira", the barmaid, Mirajane said smilingly.

"Same to you, Mira. I´m Jay and that´s Vei", Jay said, smiling brightly back.

"You need guild marks, am I right?" Mirajane asked as she held a stamp in her hand.

"Yes."

"Where do you want it and in what color?"

"Here", Jay said as she held out her arm, right inner forearm exposed. She pointed. "In black."

Mirajane was about to turn to Vei and ask her, when a voice called out: "Lucy, Erza, let´s go already!"

And Natsu and Gray came running, Natsu not even stopping for a half second as he grabbed Lucy´s arm and continued to run. Gray ran after them, not wanting to lose to Natsu.

"Too bad you can´t join us, Jay, but maybe next time", Erza said before she left after them, walking calmly.

Mirajane gave Jay the stamp like nothing had happened and then Vei hers, in a clear blue that would be visible in both of her forms, on her left shoulder.

"Will you go on a mission too?" Mirajane asked, smiling at them.

"Maybe later, but gramps wanted to talk to me before that."

* * *

"What did you want, Laxus?" Makarov asked his grandson as soon as he arrived at his office. Laxus sat in the chair with his feet on the desk and on the important papers from other guilds. "I was in the middle of talking to the new member. And get your feet off my desk!" he added, angry.

Laxus got out of the chair and leaned against the wall instead. Makarov took the place in the chair and then put his own feet on the desk. Laxus sweat-dropped, but didn´t say anything about it.

"Not even a ´welcome back´, gramps? You´re hurting my feelings. I´ve been gone for a while, after all", Laxus said.

"And then it was peace", Makarov mumbled, pointing to that Natsu didn´t have anyone to challenge, as Erza simply said no and Gildarts hadn´t returned yet, even if he was coming back the same day. "What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"On my mission I heard a rumor that a dark guild is after strong mages. Apparently some have disappeared, without a trace. Is it really wise to participate in the games?"

Makarov considered what he had said. "Maybe not. But we don´t know how true this rumor is."

"It seems to have been a secure source", Laxus said, thinking about how he threatened the guy to tell him everything he knew. "But rumors can always change from ear to ear."

Makarov was silent for a moment. "We won´t drop out", he then said. "But we should keep our guard up. Mirajane, Erza and Gildarts may know this, but nobody else other than them."

Laxus nodded and straightened up. He was about to leave when Makarov opened his mouth again: "Can you show the new member here? I need to talk to her."

Once again Laxus nodded and left to find the member he never had seen.

* * *

"Do you want something?" Mirajane asked Jay as she walked past the girl, sitting on one of the chairs by the bar.

"You have something that´s non-alcoholic? I could use something to drink", Jay asked.

"Sure, will a milkshake do?"

Jay nodded and smiled. "Anything with plants in will be great."

"Do you want something, Vei?"

"Got any good bread? Preferable with fruits and nuts in."

"Coming right up", Mirajane said, smiling and disappeared out of sight.

"You two are an odd sight", a woman said.

Jay turned her head and noticed a brown haired woman sitting on the bar legs crossed with a barrel between them. She was only wearing a bikini top as shirt. Then she crabbed the barrel, brought it to her lips and drank.

"You think we´re odd?" Vei commented.

She put the barrel down. "Non-alcoholic drink. With plants."

"So?"

She drank from the barrel once again. "How can you not drink alcohol?"

"You mean you have alcohol in that barrel?" Jay asked, fascinated.

"Cana, don´t scare the new member off", a man said teasingly behind them.

Jay turned around and saw a blonde man with a scar in the shape of lightning over his right eye. Jay stared at him.

"You´re not one to talk, Laxus", Mirajane laughed as she returned with their orders. "Jay, your smoothie and Vei, here´s the bread. I hope it will do, as it was the one closest to your order that I could find."

"Thanks Mira", Jay said and grabbed the smoothie. She then turned to Laxus. "So you´re the one with the lacrima." Laxus looked at her shocked. "I can tell by your smell", she explained. "You have a very high amount of magic, considering much of your magic comes from a lacrima."

Jay didn´t say it as a bad thing, she was actually very impressed.

"Hah, sharp girl", the woman named Cana said, teasing Laxus.

"Gramps wanted to see you", Laxus said, pointing behind him.

Jay got up and followed him, with her smoothie in hand as she didn´t want to leave it. She was pleased; Mirajane had picked out some real good plants and herbs to it. Laxus stopped in front of a door and said: "In there", before he left. She knocked and heard Makarov tell her to come in before she opened the door.

"Sit down, child", Jay did as he asked, sitting down at the chair in front of his desk. "I wanted to ask about your magic. You´re a Dragon Slayer?"

"Yes, Nature Dragon Slayer Magic is my main magic."

"Main magic? You got more than one?" Makarov asked, very surprised.

"Well, yes… but I haven´t mastered them."

"What kind of magic?"

* * *

"Seriously, what a lousy mission you guys picked!" Lucy said to the two guys. "Just to find a lacrima in a local shop!"

"Yeah, it sucked. No action", Natsu complained.

"You picked it!" Lucy sweat-dropped.

"Yeah, bad choice flame head."

"You chose it, moron!"

"DO I HEAR FIGHTING?!"

"No Erza!"

"AYE!"

Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes. "Hey, Natsu… did we ever tell Jay Master´s name?"

"I don´t know", Natsu said, uninterested.

"Did you do that, Erza?"

Erza shook her head. "Why do you ask?"

"I don´t remember telling her. And she knew it right away…"

Gray frowned. "That seems odd."

Erza nodded. "I agree, but maybe she knew about it from hearing about the guild?"

Lucy shook her head. "No, she hadn´t really heard of Fairy Tail before. She didn´t know much about the magic world…"

They were already outside the guild, and Natsu once again kicked the doors up, this time together with Gray. "WE´RE BACK!"

"Already?" Mirajane asked from the bar. "How was the mission?"

"Lame", Lucy said as she sat down. "It was just in town and it didn´t pay good at all. My rent…"

"I´ll find another one, Luce!" Natsu called out and disappeared.

"Is there any S-class, Mira? It was a time since I took one", Erza said.

"Sure, here´s a bunch", Mirajane said and brought out a stash of papers.

"Thanks", Erza took some from the top. "See you in a week."

"Bye Erza!" Lucy called after her.

"Gray-sama", Juvia said quietly, making Lucy look over her shoulder at the two of them.

"What´s up, Juvia?" Gray asked her.

Something had definitely changed between them, after all that´s happened since they first met. Juvia was acting calmer around Gray than she used to and Gray seemed to feel more comfortable around her.

"Juvia found a mission, but Juvia´s one short… so Juvia was wondering if Gray-sama could join Juvia? Juvia doesn´t know who to ask if not Gray-sama…"

"Sure, we have gone on missions before", Gray shrugged and Juvia smiled sweetly.

"Thank you, Gray-sama!"

"Honestly, how can they not be together?" Lucy sighed when they had left.

Mirajane sighed as well. "I couldn´t agree with you more, Lucy."

Lucy thought about the mission Natsu was going to pick. He probably assumed that it was going to be more than the two of them and Happy, so what if he picked something that was too hard for her?

"What´s wrong, Lucy? You look troubled", Mirajane said.

Lucy looked at her. "Nothing. I was just thinking about the mission Natsu´s going to pick."

"Oh, what about it?"

"Well, since Erza went on her own missions and Gray left with Juvia, I´m concerned he might pick one that´s too hard, since it´s only going to be the two of us a-…"

"The two of you, eh? Alone?" Lucy jumped a little, surprised by Cana´s sudden comment.

"When did you get here, Cana?!"

"I´ve been here all along", Cana waved it off. "But it´s only going to be you? Is there something you haven´t told me?"

"What are you implying?" Lucy asked, and tried not to blush.

Cana gave her an impatient look. "Has he taken your virginity?"

"WHAT?!" Lucy was beat-red. "Cana, stop it! We´re just very good friends and partners!"

Cana shook her head. "So he still hasn´t taken the first step, ey?"

Mirajane chuckled. "Let her be, Cana. It will happen in time."

"Lu, you´re back already?"

Lucy turned and saw Jay coming towards her.

"Yes, well, the mission Natsu and Gray picked was just in town, so it didn´t take long time at all. Have you talked to Master?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it took some time, but I finished. Mira, were do you want the glass?" she waved a smoothie glass she had in her hand.

"I can just take it", Mirajane said and received it from Jay.

"Are you going on a mission now, Jay?" Lucy asked.

"Yep. Or I think so, at least. I need to talk to Vei first, to see if she´s fine with it."

"Do you want to…?"

"LUCY! I FOUND A MISSION!" Natsu called out and then was standing next to her. "And it´s good pay! Let´s go already. Mira, we take this mission."

"Natsu, calm down! I was about to ask Jay if she wants to join us!"

"She´s not here", Natsu said, giving her a look saying she´s weird.

"WHAT?!"

"Let´s go now, Lucy, Happy!" Natsu grabbed Lucy and took off again

* * *

"Vei?" Jay called out as she went through the guild, looking for her partner. She tried to use her nose to find her, but she couldn´t exactly locate the Exceed.

"Are you looking for the new Exceed?" a girl said.

Jay turned to the voice and saw a blue haired girl, sitting by a table. A white Exceed was sitting next to her.

"Yes, do you know where she is?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, she went outside with Lily. They said something about not wanting to destroy the guild."

"Lily?" Jays said to herself, trying to figure out where she heard the name before.

"Yes. Do you want me to show you the way they went?"

Jay smiled brightly at the girl. "Could you do that? Thank you."

The girl just smiled back and stood up. "I´m Wendy, by the way, and that´s Carla. You're a Dragon Slayer too, right?"

Jay smiled. "Yes, and my name is Jay."

"Nice to meet you, Jay-san."

"Nice to meet you too", Jay smiled back.

Wendy walked in front of her, pointing out things as they went by. They walked rater quickly, which pleased Jay as she wanted to find Vei as fast as possible. She slowly became aware of the sound of swords clashing against swords.

"Is that Vei?!" she started running, noticing that Wendy wasn´t far behind her.

As she burst out of a door in the back she came outside and soon noticed Vei in her battle-form.

"Vei, what are you doing?"

Suddenly, a big sword came swinging down at Vei and she blocked it. She then ducked and did a lunge with her swords for a black figure.

"What´s going on?!" Jay asked, bewildered.

* * *

**I don´t know if it´s obvious or not what´s going on, but I leave you with one little cliffhanger. I hope you´re a bit interested in Jay´s magic - and how she knew Master Makarov´s name. Next chapter will appear sometime next week (if I can wait that long).**

**Please let me know how this chapter was, and I would love to know theories as well, so if you like you can tell me that too. Review if you have time!**

**And about the name of the chapter - in the beginning I had kind of planned to introduce more members to Jay (if I remember it correctly, I named it before I wrote it). But I atleast introduced some I guess:P**

**Since I forgot to publish this monday, I´ll publish two chapters today:)**


	4. Chapter 4: Not time for missions yet

_Suddenly, a big sword came swinging down at Vei and she blocked it. She then ducked and did a lunge for a black figure._

"_What´s going on?!" Jay asked, bewildered._

* * *

**Don´t really have anything to say, so just continue reading. And once again, sorry for updating to late...**

**Well, I´m not late actually, as I said that it would come sometime this week, but I feel bad about it. Now, read please.**

* * *

_Chapter 4: Not time for missions yet, huh...?_

"So what´s this mission anyways?" Gajeel asked as they got off the train, pretending that he hadn´t been motion sick.

"Levy didn´t tell you?"

"I never got to that", Levy answered. "By the way, where´s Lily?

"He stayed at the guild", Gajeel answered. "He said he had something to do."

Gajeel read the paper he got from Jet and then gave it back without saying anything.

"We should go that way", Jet pointed.

"No, that way", Droy said and pointed in the opposite direction.

Gajeel didn´t stop, he just continued walking.

"Where are you going?" Levy asked.

"It´s this way."

"How do you know that?" Droy asked.

He didn´t answer.

"Gajeel!" Levy said, irritated.

"Trust me, shrimp. I´ve been here before."

* * *

"I´m never going on a train again", Natsu complained.

"You always say that", Happy said, smiling.

Natsu didn´t answer, he just continued to groan. Lucy chuckled. He was kind of cute, even though it was completely useless that he got motion sickness whenever he was on transportation as it meant he couldn´t fight. Like the first time they´d met and Natsu and Happy got on the ship she was on, right after Bora had thrown away her keys.

"Why are you laughing?" Happy asked.

"Yeah, Lucy, you are so weird", Natsu said.

"DIDN´T YOU HAVE MOTION SICKNESS?!" Lucy said angry and hit him.

"Why did you do that?!" Natsu complained as Lucy took out a map to see where they were heading.

"We should go that way", Lucy said, ignoring his question.

"I´m hungry, let´s eat", Natsu said.

"Aye!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "You´re always hungry."

But she was too and so they went to the nearest restaurant.

* * *

The black figure dodged Vei´s attack and Jay was impressed to see someone do this as it was very unusual. As the two fighters parted, Jay got a better look at Vei´s opponent and discovered that he also was a Exceed, transformed to his battle-form. His sword was the size of Vei´s two sword´s together, but before her eyes it sunk and became a size just a little bit bigger than Vei´s swords, and would be more effective to her fast movements.

"Don´t worry, Jay-san", Wendy said from behind her, panting a little from the fast run. "It´s a friendly fight."

"Why didn´t you tell me that from the beginning, Wendy?" Jay said and smiled at the child. "Let´s watch!"

As they both sat down, Jay turned back to the fight, seeing how Vei flew forward, attacking the other Exceed that Jay supposed was Lily. Lily dodged, and swung his sword towards Vei, but Vei spun and blocked it with one of her swords, while with the other launching for him. She almost did hit, but Lily pushed away with his sword on hers, just in the right second to dodging the sword from his stomach with millimeters. From the power of the push, Vei almost lost her balance and staggered backwards, something that Lily was going to use to his advantage. He launched for her, in a low motion towards her legs, but Vei who was seeing it coming jumped to the side and rolled. As she got up, she took her fighting stance again.

The fight continued like this, none of them getting the upper hand and none of them actually getting a hit. Lily was stronger, but Vei was a bit more agile and faster with her attacks, even it out.

"When is it finished?" Wendy asked Jay.

Jay was about to answer, when two ´poffs´ were heard and the two fighters became small.

"Thank you for the fight", Vei said, smiling.

"Same to you. You´re a worthy opponent", Lily answered, smirking.

"Same to you", Vei answered as she discovered Jay. "Jay! When did you get here?"

"Somewhere in the middle", she answered as she rose and looked at Lily. "I´m impressed, seeing you keeping up with Vei. You´re a good swordsman."

Lily bowed a little. "Thank you. I´m Pantherlily, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Pantherlily. But I´ll still call you Lily. My name is Jailine, but I prefer to be called Jay."

Lily shrugged. "That´s fine. So Jay is your partner, Vei?"

Vei nodded. "Yeah. She´s awesome."

"No, you´re the awesome one, Vei", Jay said to her and they smiled at each other. That was an intern joke between them. "You want to go on a mission?"

Vei nodded. "Sounds interesting."

"Let´s get going then!" Jay called out happily and ran into the guild again.

Vei followed her, and not too far behind, Lily, Wendy and the white Exceed Carla came too, taking it a bit more slowly. Jay heard Wendy and Carla talking about going on a mission, when suddenly a monotone voice coming from different places at the same time called out: "Magnolia is changing into a Gildarts shift. All the towns people please get to your set position".

"What´s that?" Jay asked, as she stopped.

"Gildarts is coming back", Mirajane answered from behind the bar.

"Who´s Gildarts?" Jay asked as she sat down by the bar.

"He´s a member of the guild, known as one of the strongest", Cana answered, drinking out of her barrel. Jay was wondering if she had gotten a new one or if she still was on the same.

"He´s also Cana´s father", Mirajane said. "He left before the last GMGs and hasn´t been back since then."

Jay looked at Cana, who didn´t seem especially happy to see her father after a year. "Aren´t you glad he´s coming back?"

Cana shrugged. "I am. But he never leaves me alone."

Jay nodded, as if she understood even if she didn´t.

_I´d give almost anything to see papa again. You just really don´t know what you have, Cana._

"What is a ´Gildarts shift´ needed?" Vei asked.

Just as Mirajane had explained what it was and why it was needed, the doors opened and in came a man that Jay assumed was Gildarts. She could feel strong magic from him, and she could also see some things that he and Cana had in common.

"Welcome back, Gildarts!" several voices in the guild called out.

Some greeted him, but most people let him approach the bar where his beloved daughter Cana was.

"CANA!" Gildarts called out and hugged Cana tightly. "I´ve missed you!"

"Then don´t disappear for a year, baka!" Cana answered, but Jay could see that she was happy to see him.

"I´m sorry…" Gildarts looked depressed. "I saw when you hit the MPF in the games… you´re amazing Cana…"  
_Is Cana blushing?_ Jay thought.

"Mavis let me borrow Fairy Glitter", Cana said, trying to tone it down.

"That doesn´t matter, it was still you who used it", Gildarts claimed.

Jay couldn´t help but smiling as she saw the reunion of father and daughter, but tears was also about to gather in her eyes, so she left to find a mission, looking at the request board.

* * *

"I don´t know, Natsu…" Lucy said.

"Come on, Luce! I know you can do it!" Natsu said encouraging.

She bit her lip. "No… I´ll just lose…"

"Luce", Natsu said, taking her shoulders. "You can do it. Believe in yourself."

Lucy nodded determined, and tried to hide the little blush that appeared on her cheeks. She raised the hammer and said: "I´m ready!"

The game then started and little toy-spiders appeared one after another to then disappear into the little holes again.

Natsu watched as Lucy with concentrated face swing down the hammer rapidly to hit the spiders. She managed to hit almost every last one of them, and Natsu smiled when he heard her happy laugh as she hit them. Then the game was over and Lucy saw her score.

"No way!" she squealed in happy surprise. "Look, Natsu! I beat the record!"

Natsu laughed together with her and Happy circled around them, wondering if the reward was going to be fish.

"Good work, Lucy!" Natsu laughed.

"I did it!" she squealed once again and threw her arms around Natsu´s neck.

They spun around one time, due to the suddenness of Lucy´s hug, laughing.

"Let´s get the reward, Luce!" Natsu called out and grabbed her hand as they ran towards the desk with the tickets in hand.

"They liiiikeee each other", Happy said, even though his two comrades already were gone and none of them heard him. He then followed them, arriving just as Lucy got a miniature red dragon.

Natsu looked at it with big eyes and Happy thought it was because it reminded him of Igneel.

Lucy apparently thought the same, because she stretched it out towards Natsu. "Here. Take it."

Natsu gave her a look, asking if she was serious and she nodded. He smiled as he received it from Lucy. "Thanks a lot, Luce!"

He smiled his big smiled at her, making Lucy blush a little. "It´s nothing."

"Let´s try the other games too!" Natsu called out happily and ran.

Lucy laughed as she watched his excitement. "We´re coming!"

"You liiiiiikeeeee him", Happy rolled his tongue.

"Shut it, stupid cat, or I´ll pull your whiskers out!" Lucy glared at him.

"Wah, Natsu! Lucy´s being a meanie!" Happy called out as he flew away towards Natsu.

* * *

Lucy sighed at the cat and then followed him to where Natsu had gone. He was wrong, Happy that is. She didn´t like Natsu – not that way Happy meant. They had much fun together, sure, and she really cared for him. And she thought his childish behavior was cute and amusing. And they often hanged out too, so she could understand why people would get the idea that there was something more between them. But there wasn´t.

_And even if I liked him in that way, he wouldn´t feel the same way… WHAT AM I THINKING?!_

Lucy hit her head to get rid of her silly thoughts.

"Hey, Luce, why are you hitting yourself?" Natsu asked her.

"Weird", Happy agreed with him and Natsu laughed.

_Idiots._

"We should continue with our mission", Lucy said, ignoring them even though she got a bit flushed because of the anger.

"Oh, come on Luce! Don´t be so boring!" Natsu complained.

"Aye!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "We were just supposed to eat, and then we were going to continue with the mission."

"But… I´m going to win this!" Natsu said and pointed at a stuffed bear.

"Why?" Lucy looked at him questioning, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Because you won something for me, I want to win something for you!" Natsu said, grinning his wide, toothy grin.

"Natsu…" Lucy said, blushing a little.

_That´s so cute of him._

"I´ll just need to win this game…" Natsu thought for a while. "A couple of times… with high score…"

"Natsu…" Lucy started.

"Come on Luce, let´s do this!" Natsu said, smiling.

"Okay!" she answered smiling, and then watched him playing the game.

_You really don´t need to, Natsu… but the fact that you do… thank you, Natsu._

The sweet smile on her lips grew as she helped Happy cheer for Natsu to win.

* * *

The guild had come to grow very empty as the time passed and people either returned home or went on missions. Now it was just herself and Vei left. Well, Mirajane was there of course, working, and Makarov was in his office. And then it was Cana and her father left too, together with two men named Macao and Wakaba, if she had got their name right. Mirajane was drying some glasses behind the bar and the group of four that was drinking and talking was way too loud, but Jay didn´t really mind as it would have felt very lonely if they hadn´t. She and Vei were over at the request board, trying to find a mission. Jay wanted something where she would get to use her magic and hopefully beat someone up, as that was the mood she was in. She wasn´t sure why, but she needed to beat the crap out of some bad-guys.

Jay sighed. "There just isn´t any good missions…"

Vei nodded agreeing. "But we need to take on of them, right?"

Jay nodded. "Yeah, we apparently need 100 000 jewels in the end of the month."

"And if we decide to take the second too, we´ll be up in 200", Vei said.

They hadn´t been looking for a mission all day as it might seem. They aren´t Nab after all. They had been visiting Fairy Hills, after getting the question from Mirajane where they were going to live. When they said they had no idea, Mirajane had suggested Fairy Hills, the girl dorm for Fairy Tail´s members.

"Oi, new girl. Jay, was it?" Jay wasn´t surprised by the voice behind her as she already had recognized the smell of the earlier drinking woman. She turned around and looked at Cana. "Need a mission?"

"Yeah, but all left sucks…"

"How about this one, then?" Cana gave her a paper and Jay read it.

"Well, it´s better than the one´s here…"

"You want to join me on it?" Cana asked.

"Really?"

Cana nodded. "I need to get away anyways. I´m running low on jewels and besides that… anyways, what do you say?"

Jay smiled brightly. "We´d love to."

Cana smiled back. "See you at the station tomorrow then."

* * *

"We should find somewhere to sleep", Lucy said, yawning.

"But what about the mission?" Natsu asked.

"It´s _way_ too late for that", Lucy said, and yawned again.

They had played for way to long, going from lunch to evening and then early night. The mayor´s office, to where they had needed to head, had closed since long and they both needed to find a place to sleep and somewhere to eat.

"I still haven´t won the bear…"

Lucy looked at his disappointed face. "Maybe another time…"

Natsu shook his head. "No, I´m going to win it!"

Lucy yawned again. "I´ll see if I can find an inn somewhere, and then you can come after me, okay?"

Natsu nodded. "I´m going to win that bear!"

Lucy smiled at his determination. "See you guys later then!"

She waved as she left them.

"Wow, sure are little people out…" she mumbled to herself.

And it was dark too. She wondered if she would be able to find an open inn at this hour. Her stomach growled. She laid her hands at it and sighed. She hadn´t noticed how hungry she was when she was with Natsu and Happy, but now she couldn´t stop thinking about it.

"Inn first, food later", she told herself. But as she continued to walk she only got hungrier. "It couldn´t hurt to just take a quick snack, right?"

She noticed an open café and approached it. A bell called when she came in, telling the girl behind the counter that she had a customer. She had short, silver-white hair in two rat tails that barely touched her shoulders and a long bang that covered her right eye and reached her cheekbone. Her eyes were brown and she looked way too young to work in a café, especially at this late hour, but Lucy ignored it.

The girl behind the counter smiled at Lucy and asked: "What can I get for you?"

Lucy smiled back at the girl. "Do you have like a sandwich or yoghurt? Nothing too big."

Lucy´s stomach growled again and the girl laughed a little at the sound of it. "Sure it will be enough?"

Lucy nodded. "I think I´m going to eat with my partners later."

The girl nodded. "Will a sandwich do then?"

"It will be perfect", Lucy smiled. "Just enough for me."

"What do you want on it?" the girl asked.

Lucy gave her order and then waited as the girl prepared it. While she was waiting, Natsu and Happy arrived.

"This isn´t an inn!" Natsu said surprised.

Lucy sweat-dropped at his comment, as she thought it was obvious from the outside. "No, I needed something small to eat."

"Now I´m hungry too!" Natsu complained.

"We´ll eat something when we find an inn", Lucy said.

The girl gave Lucy her sandwich. "It´ll be 10 jewels. Or do you want something more?"

"No", Lucy answered before Natsu got a word out. "Thank you."

"Have a nice evening", the girl said as they left.

"You too", Lucy said over her shoulder and for a moment she thought she saw something in the girls visible eye that told she was much older than she looked. But she shrugged it off.

The door closed behind them. "You´re so mean Lucy! We´re hungry too!"

"Then use your nose and find us somewhere to sleep and eat", she answered and took a bite of her sandwich. But she wasn´t completely heartless and gave them both a piece. "Let´s find an inn."

"Aye sir!" they both answered and Lucy rolled her eyes.

* * *

"They were two Master", the girl said, bracing herself for the coming rage. "I didn´t want to wake any commotion, and they were strong. If Rian-nii had been here, then maybe… but not just me."

She didn´t get any answer from the lacrima for several minutes. "Then we´ll keep our eyes open for them. Fairy Tail, huh?"

The girl nodded. "I saw their guild marks. No mistaking."

Master nodded. "We´ll get them eventually. You did well, Hinata."

Hinata bowed. "Master."

"Return to the guild. I have an announcement to make."

"What´s that, Master?" Hinata asked, not being able to hide her excitement.

"We´re participating in the games."

Something close to a wicked smile was showing on the girl´s lips and then she licked them. "I can´t wait."

* * *

**Want to know more now? Am I getting you interested? I hope so atleast:) I know it wasn´t so much with the missions in this chapter, but it will come, so just wait, ´kay? And sorry for the bad chapter name, but I just couldn´t come up with any good one XD**

**See ya´next week, until then - have a great life! (Sorry for my lameness...)**


	5. Chapter 5: Misunderstandings and pasts

"_They were two Master", the girl said, bracing herself for the coming rage. "I didn´t want to wake any commotion, and they were strong."_

_She didn´t get any answer from the lacrima for several minutes. "Then we´ll keep our eyes open for them. Fairy Tail, huh?"_

* * *

**I´m soooo sorry for being late with the update! Time passes so fast, I didn´t even realize I had missed a week! So sorry, anyone who reads this.**

**I would like to ask for one thing though, if you have time, please leave a review wheter you like it or not... If you don´t, please tell me why you feel like that so I can improve as a writer, and even if you like it, if there´s something you think I can do better, please let me know this as well...**

**Oh, and I finally got a better story picture - I made my friend draw it for me, she´s really good (at least I think so, but I get if you don´t, since you might not see so good on the picture...)****Anyways, here´s the chapter (one of the longest so far, I think)**

* * *

_Chapter 5: Misunderstandings and the past_

"I´m beat", Lucy said as she fell down on the couch in the room.

"We still need to eat", Natsu said as his stomach growled.

"Aye", Happy agreed miserable.

Lucy rose. "Let´s ask Jane-san then."

Jane was the owner of the inn "Welcome" and the one who had given them their room. The room was a bit odd in the way that it had a couch but no beds, only two mattresses on the floor.

Neither of her two companions answered, and it was a silent walk down the stairs to the first floor. Jane was found in a couch, drinking tea and reading a book. She looked up at them when she heard them coming down the stairs and closed her book.

She smiled at them, a sweet smile that was very expected in the kind face of the older lady. "What can I do for you, youths?"

Lucy smiled back at the kind lady. "We would like to get something to eat as we missed dinner."

Jane looked very upset hearing this. "You missed dinner? Oh, you poor children! Just wait here and I´ll get you food right away!"

Jane disappeared and Lucy sat down in one of the couches with Happy following her. Natsu sat down by the fireplace and munched on some of the fire while waiting for Jane to come back.

"Oh, right. Luce, here´s the bear", Natsu said and threw it to her.

Lucy almost dropped it, but managed to catch it. "Thank you, Natsu", she said smiling sweetly as she looked down on the bear.

Natsu huffed, looking a little embarrassed and said: "It´s nothing…"

"No, really, I love it", Lucy said as she looked up from the bear and smiled at him brightly.

This time, Natsu definitely blushed, but he hid it by smiling back his wide grin. "I´m glad."

_They sooo liiiikeee each other, _Happy thought.

* * *

Lucy woke up first in the morning. A soft light went in through the window and she thought that it was too warm and comfortable on the mattress, so she didn´t even open her eyes the slightest.

She remembered yesterday night, after they had eaten. They were all so tired, that Natsu and Happy just fell asleep the instant they laid down on the bed, Natsu snoring like a beast as always – though she had started to get used to it by now. She had tried to move her mattress away anyways, but for some reason it was stuck in the floor and she had to lie down there anyways.

That´s right. Natsu was sleeping next to her.

.

.

.

Lucy realized why she was so warm. Natsu´s arm was around her waist.

As she opened her eyes she noticed that her head was lying on Natsu´s chest. The arm around her waist had her in a tight grip and she couldn´t get out of the grip.

_Well, at least he´s not snoring right now,_ Lucy thought as she sighed.

Natsu mumbled some nonsense that she couldn't hear and moved in is sleep, tossing his other arm around her. And grabbed her ass.

_Sexual harassment!_

Lucy reacted in her usual way, giving Natsu a "Lucy Kick" and screaming at him. Natsu didn´t get what was happening, just wondered why she kicked him. And Lucy stormed off, mumbling to herself and calling him an idiot.

Jay waited for Cana at the station, thinking about two things they should have done: deciding a place and deciding which time they were going to meet there. The train station was bigger than she first had thought and she wasn´t even sure which city they were going to. Jay sighed.

"When is she coming?" Vei asked.

"I don´t know."

"Well… where were you going to meet?"

"I don´t know."

Vei sighed. "Where are we going to go then?"

"I don´t know."

"Jay! What do you know?!"

"That you don´t help", Jay answered and glared at her.

"Those are things you normally check when you decide something like this", Vei said, glaring back at her.

"Well, you didn´t ask her anything about that either, did you?!"

They continued to glare at each other, none of them turning their gaze away.

* * *

_They are very similar, _Erza thought, looking at the different requests in her hands.

She was going by train to her next mission, as she cleared the first mission the day before. And the remaining missions all were about Dark Guilds causing trouble, as far as she could see.

It was a very quiet cart she was in and there weren´t many people in it at all. It gave her some time to think and made her realize that she missed her team. Without them, it was so much more quiet and lonely too. They had been through so much together, after all.

"Nee-san?" a familiar voice asked.

She turned her head. "Shô! Wally!" Erza looked at them surprised. "What are you doing here?"

As they caught up on their lost time, Shô and Wally told her about all that they had seen traveling the world and also that they had seen her in the games.

"You were amazing!" Shô said.

"And Milliana too", Wally said, admiringly. "Can you tell her that, if you meet her?"

They also told her about how they were looking for Jellal, but not for seeking revenge as she first thought. They had heard about Crime Sorcièri and that he was a part of it. Their plan was to talk to him and maybe clear out the past.

The train came to a stop and the old friends said their good-byes as here was the place where Shô and Wally were going off. Erza wished them luck in finding Jellal and they wished her luck on her missions. Then the doors closed and the train left the station. Erza went back to her spot and sat down, thinking.

_Jellal… what´s he up to now?_

* * *

"I don´t get it, why is Lucy mad?" Natsu complained to Happy.

"I don´t know. Maybe it´s because she´s weird."

Natsu thought about it. "No, I think it is something else. I just don't know what…" he got up from the floor. "I better find her and ask what´s up."

"Maybe she´s mad at you?" Happy suggested.

"But I haven´t done anything!" Natsu defended himself.

They walked out in the corridor. Natsu heard voices further down the corridor he was walking in.

"… perverted."

"Yes, it was", Lucy sighed, agreeing. Natsu stopped and listened. He didn´t even realize he did. "He´s kind of dense and childish, it just doesn´t seem like something he would do."

"Maybe it´s because he likes you", Jane suggested.

Lucy laughed, a bit nervously. "No, he doesn´t. Not in _that _way, like you mean."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

"How do you know that?" Lucy didn´t answer Jane´s question. "Have you thought about why you are so mad?"

"I´m mad because he´s a pervert! He grabbed my ass, Jane-san!"

_So that´s why Lucy´s mad… who did that to her?! Nobody should treat her like that!_

Natsu ran away to do something, that he as usual, hadn´t thought through properly. Like he always did, he faced his problems head on.

* * *

The sand closest to the ocean was cold between their toes and the sound of the waves rolling in was calming and a bit romantic, in fact they probably looked at a couple on date – but all was ruined by the noise the other people on the beach did and the fact that they were judges in a sandcastle building contest.

"I still don´t think this feels like a mission for mages", Gray said.

"Juvia knows, but it´s not just a regular contest, remember Gray-sama? And we have to keep our eyes open for people cheating by using their magic."

"Yeah, I know. But I still don´t understand why they need to people for this."

Juvia shrugged and kept silent. She hadn´t wanted to lie to him, but she wanted to spend some time with him, just the two of them.

Gray suddenly turned to her. "Juvia, I realized how much I love you. Do you want to marry me?"

"Yes, of course I want Gray-sama!"

"Let´s have 30 kids and…"

Juvia snapped out of her daydream. She _had_ to keep her mind away from those imaginations. She was pretty sure they freaked Gray out a little, and she didn´t want that, so she tried to tone down her tendencies to do stuff like that and act more normal around him. It had seemed to work, as he seemed more comfortable around her than he used too.

"Hey, Juvia?" ¨

"Yes, Gray-sama?"

"Do you want ice-cream or something? It´s pretty hot out here after all."

"Yeah sure, Gray-sama, Juvia would love some ice-cream."

Gray smiled at her, making her heart beat a thousand of times faster. "Alright, stay here and I get us some."

Juvia shook her head franticly. "No, Juvia can´t let Gray-sama do that!"

"Why not? They aren´t that expensive and one of us needs to pay attention to the completion."

"Then let Juvia buy Gray-sama ice-cream and Gray-sama can keep an eye on the competition-"

"No, I´m the guy, I should pay", Gray said as he looked away. "It´s a guy thing, I can´t explain it, just let me."

Was he blushing a little? Juvia only thought that for a brief moment, before she got beat red, since all she could think about was that she heard that guy´s often paid for their date.

_Their dates? Gray-samas date?! _Juvia thought.

Her mind was about to wander off again, but Gray´s voice brought her back.

"Just stay here and I´ll be back in a couple of minutes", Gray said and smiled quickly at her before he left.

Juvia, frozen in spot, was about to turn to water as she no longer could control her body.

_Gray-sama is buying Juvia ice-cream! Ah, Juvia is so happy! But what is Juvia going to do when Gray-sama comes back? Juvia can´t accept the ice-cream, can Juvia? Oh, what should Juvia do?! _Juvia thought, about to panic.

* * *

"Maybe he was asleep?" Jane said.

Lucy thought about it and then blushed. "I didn´t think about that… I got to go and apologize to him!" Lucy got up from her seat and was about to go out of the room. "Thanks for listening, Jane-san", she said over her shoulder. "Thanks for listening, Jane-san!" she said over her shoulder.

"Are you in love with the boy?" Jane asked.

"WHAT?!" Lucy called out shocked and blushed. "Don´t be silly, we´re partners and really good friends, that´s all. See you later, Jane-san."

Lucy left the room, rather quickly, after waving a final good-bye to Jane.

"You are still young Lucy", Jane said to herself as she rose and gathered the dishes from the tea they had been drinking. "You might haven´t realized it, but you and the boy are destined. Even an old woman like me with almost all power drained sees that", Jane looked down in Lucy´s cup. "It seems as it´s going to be soon now… the tea doesn´t lie."

* * *

Jay, Vei and Cana were finally on the train. Cana had finally found them, telling them that they were completely wrong and had missed the train, so they had to wait for next. Jay felt as if she had gotten quite close to Cana, even though they hadn´t known each other for that long.

Can had just told her about her life and how she finally got the courage to tell her father that he was _her _father with the help of Lucy.

"What about you?" Cana said. "What´s your story?"

"I was with papa from such an early age that I don´t remember anything before him taking care of me. But he told me he found me in the woods when I was about just old enough to crawl. I guess my parents left me there. Papa told me that when he found me, he was surprised to see how much the animals in the woods approached me, as if I was one of them. They even gave me food. Papa said that that´s the main reason he had decided to take care of me – he said I was blessed by Mother Earth."

"Who´s ´papa´?"

"He´s the Nature Dragon, Terra."

"So he found you, took care of you and taught you magic?"

"Not just magic, but to talk, read and write as well. Of course the orphanage taught me a lot too."

"Orphanage?"

Jay nodded. "Papa disappeared in x777 and I was looking for him when Susan, the owner of the orphanage found me."

"How old were you back then?" Cana asked, seeing herself in the girl in front of her as she also partly grew up without parents, even though she had had Fairy Tail as a second family.

"They thought I looked about eight when they found me, so that was decided to be my age."

Cana thought for a moment. "Wait, didn´t you say you are eighteen?"

Jay nodded. "Yes, I am."

"You can´t be eighteen now, if you were eight back in x777. That was fifteen years ago!"

Jay looked startled. "So many years…?" she mumbled. Then she looked up at Cana. "The orphanage has a spell around it´s grounds making the time go slower. Susan had realized that people adopted younger children and so she paid for a spell – I think it was some kind of runes – and so we would age slower, keeping us younger for a longer time. If I would go back there now they would be shocked to see how old I´ve gotten since they haven´t aged that much."

"How long is it since you´ve been there?" Cana asked.

"I left when I was fourteen", Jay said and yawned, before she smiled sheepishly. "Do you mind if I sleep for a while?"

"Not at all", Cana said as she rose. "I´m going to find some beer, do you want something?"

_Isn´t there any left?!_

"No, it´s fine, but thanks for the offer Cana", Jay smiled at her.

Cana shrugged to say it wasn't anything to thank for, and left. Jay shifted in her seat to get more comfortable and closed her eyes.

* * *

_A familiar laugh was heard and she turned towards him. "To!"_

_He grinned at her. "You lost, Jalli."_

"_I did not! You cheated!"_

_To laughed at her. "I knew you would say that."_

"_You did cheat! But if we do it again, I´ll win for sure!" Jalli said._

_To shook his head. "No, you´ll just faint like you did last time."_

"_You fainted too", Jalli pouted._

_To felt his face get flustered. "Whatever. My point is, we can´t."_

_Jalli stared at the ground, and then looked up with a happy glint in her eyes. "Let´s fight then! No magic at all."_

_To shook his head. "I don´t want to hit a girl."_

_Jalli laughed, not even pointing out that it didn´t matter like she usually did. "So what did you do before then?"_

* * *

Toyo woke up from the dream. He hadn´t dreamt about her for long know. He hadn´t thought he would get too see her ever again, not even in his dreams – but he had been very wrong. Ever since Master said they were going to participate in the games, he had dreamt about her more frequently.

"Is it ten years ago?" he mumbled to himself as he rose from his bed. "Or more now?"

"Toyo-kun?" a voice, Kuromi, called out from outside his door. "Master asked me to get you. He wanted to see us."

"Coming", Toyo said as he pulled a shirt over his head and opened the door. Kuromi didn´t move a facial muscle, even though he suddenly had opened the door right in front of her face and almost slammed it in to her face.

"Watch when you open the door", she said neutral. "Hinata-chan could have gotten hurt."

"Hinata isn´t here", Toyo said and started walking. "Is Master where he usually is?"

Kuromi nodded and walked up next to him. "Rian-kun and Hinata-chan are probably already there. Minalise-san is waiting as well."

Toyo wasn´t surprised at all to hear that Minalise was there, she always was close to Master.

The door to the Master´s office swung open and they entered. Rian and Hinata looked at them when they came in, but Minalise kept her eyes on Master who was standing with his back against them, looking out the window. He was as spotless as ever, the white shirt tucked in his black pants without a single wrinkle and the night-black hair perfectly combed back. The doors closed behind them with a quiet thud.

Master didn´t turn to look at them. "I called you here to tell you that you will represent us in the Grand Magic Games. Don´t forget what we are doing and don´t kill anyone. Understood?" Master turned to look at them. "Hinata, Rian, Kuromi, Toyo and Minalise, you _must _all hold back. After all, it would be very unnecessary to get rune knights after us. Toyo, you will not use _that_."

They all nodded. "Understood."

"The guild expects you to win. Don´t disappoint them. You can leave."

They bowed and left, except for Minalise who stayed in the room, still not surprising anyone. Toyo went back to his room and lay down on the bed. His thoughts went to his old best friend. He wondered where she was now. How she looked now, after all the time that had passed. If they´ll meet again.

"Jalli…" he said quietly to himself. "Why do I dream about you now? Will we meet?"

* * *

**I hope this chapter was to your liking, and I finally brought in Erza and Juvia (I think so, atleast). As I said, please let me know what you think - wheter it´s good or bad.**

**I´ll guess I´ll see you next week then, until then - have a great life and happy Easter (not yet, but my Easter Holiday began today, so I´ve told a couple of people already).**

**Oh, and I might as well tell you: I´m going away over the Easter, so if I haven´t updated in Monday - Wednesday morning (in my country) it won´t be any update next week. Me + playing handball in another country = no internet connection and no updates. Sorry!**

**And I´ll say this again: please let me know what you think (it can be ANYTHING; the story, the sum, the cover pic, characters - whatever you want to complain or want me to change (and if you like something I would like to know too... ^-^))**


	6. Chapter 6: The mission begins

_Toyo went back to his room and lay down on the bed. His thoughts went to his old best friend. He wondered where she was now. How she looked now, after all the time that had passed. If they´ll meet again._

"_Jalli…" he said quietly to himself. "Why do I dream about you now?"_

* * *

**So, I didn´t have time to post a chapter last week, before I went to Prague... sorry ´bout that. But here´s the next chapter.**

* * *

_Chapter 6: The mission begins_

"So", Levy said pointing at the plan of the smaller warehouse. "We split up, each covering a piece of the warehouse and we gather them all in the middle of the warehouse."

"Wouldn´t it be better to get them to one of the exits?" Droy asked.

"No, they need to die", Gajeel said.

"Or else they´ll just go somewhere else and remember – we need to get rid of them from all of the warehouses", Levy said, but she really didn´t want to kill them.

Well, really she didn´t want to face them at all, but she had no choice. Cockroaches – she shuddered a little just at the thought of them. If she had known from the beginning it had been cockroaches she wasn´t sure if she had accepted it. But the pay was quite good.

"We better start as soon as possible", Jet then said. "We might be able to finish one warehouse today at least."

Levy nodded. "You´re right, let´s get going."

* * *

They arrived at the contest and were looking for the customer.

"It should be the one who arranges the contest", Lucy said as they stood outside a big building which was almost completely made of glass. Lucy was already beginning to worry about how much money that would disappear to repairing the damages after Natsu had went berserk.

"Let´s go find them then", Natsu said and they went inside.

The inside was bigger than Lucy had expected, and very bright due to all of the windows – the whole building was almost a big window really – and the air was filled with the pleasant smell of roses. There were quite many people and Lucy saw why the air smelled so much of roses – there were roses everywhere. Roses climbing up pillars, roses in vases on tables, roses in vases on the floor, roses on the furniture… simply wherever there could be roses really.

"Wow…" Lucy said, admiringly. She was really impressed by how much roses they had manage to get in here. She glanced at her companions. "Natsu, Happy… Natsu, are you alright?!"

He nodded, but his face had an almost greenish color. "Just… so strong… scents."

"Oh…" Lucy said as she realized how hard it had to be for Natsu. His sense of smell was much better than hers, and she found it almost overwhelming.

"Excuse me", a voice asked and Lucy turned her head towards the source. A petite girl with black, short and spiky hair dressed in simple white shirt and jeans shorts looked at her with her green eyes. "I noticed the mark on your hand… are you from Fairy Tail?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes."

The girl, Lucy realized that it was a woman, just small, in her later thirties, maybe even closer to her forties, smiled. "Follow me please."

They followed the woman away from all the flowers and people, to an empty corridor. "My name is Ana", she told them as they walked. "I work here at Competition Hall and we are very glad that you accepted our request", she said and then stopped in front of a door which she knocked on. "Boss? I have found the mages."

"Good, come in, yes!" a voice called out.

Ana opened the door and led them into the room. A man with blonde hair and brown eyes were waiting behind a desk. His face looked remarkable similiar to a pineapple. "Welcome, Fairy Tail and thank you for accepting our request, yes."

"No problem", Lucy said, not really sure what to answer to that. "Can you please tell us about the mission?"

"Ah, well yes of course, yes", he answered and motioned towards a little couch in front of his desk. "Have a seat, yes."

As he asked, they sat down on the couch. It was rather cramped. Happy sat down on one of the armrests.

"Sorry if it´s a bit cramped – we change the furniture so that it matches the competitions we´re hosting, yes. So to the mission – this time we´re hosting a couple's competition and the prize is probably the greatest so far; 700 000 jewels and a relaxing, romantic trip to a spa and resort hotel, yes. Due to the fact that this prize is the biggest so far, we fear that people might try to steal it, yes. We´ve had that problem before, but now when the prize is bigger than ever we suspect that more experienced thieves with plans might try it, yes."

"And our job is to make sure that they won´t? I´m getting all fired up!" Natsu said, his hand engulfed in flames.

"Watch it!" Lucy said and leaned away from the flame. Natsu let the flame die. "Really Natsu, be more careful…"

"Yes, your job is to make sure that the prize doesn´t get stolen, yes", their customer continued as if nothing had happened. "But the only ones who can get close to the prize is the participants, yes", he looked at them as if they should draw a conclusion and they just looked back confused. "To make sure the prize doesn´t get stolen you have to be close to it, yes."

"You mean…?" Lucy started.

"You have to participate in the competition, yes."

* * *

They had split up as soon as they got inside of the warehouse and Levy went to her side of the warehouse. She had used her magic to create a torch that she hoped was going to keep the cockroaches out of her way, but just going in the warehouse gave her the creeps. She thought she could hear them, crawling around just out of reach for the light, and it crept under her skin, which made it feel like the cockroaches was crawling all over her…

Levy bit back a scream. She was way too much at unease and just scared herself.

"What was that?!" she whispered and turned herself to the right. She had thought she saw something. "I guess I just imagined", she said to herself and sighed. "Calm down, Levy, three deep breathes and then you´ll continue", she muttered and did as she had said to herself.

She turned forward to keep walking and a loud scream that echoed around her escaped from her mouth.

* * *

"Juvia, I´m back", Gray said as he arrived. Juvia didn´t seem to have moved a bit. "Juvia, are you alright?" he continued worried as she didn´t move.

"Y-yes!" she nervously called out and involuntary jumped in the air.

"Juvia, seriously, what´s going on?" Gray asked, starting to get really worried. "Are you sick or something?"

Moving the ice-creams over to one of his hands, he laid his free hand on Juvia´s forehead. He immediately withdrew it and almost dropped the ice-creams. "Wow, Juvia! You´re boiling!"

This was actually true – Juvia´s body had turned to boiling water when Gray had touched her. Gray had to freeze her and then let her out of the ice to make her stop.

"Juvia is sorry, Gray-sama…"

"Don´t worry about it Juvia, as long as you´re fine", he said and smiled a little towards her, making her blush. He stretched out one of the ice-creams towards her. "Here. Shall we continue with the mission?"

Juvia nodded. "Thank you, Gray-sama."

He only smiled towards her, glad she was okay.

_What´s this… this feeling?_

* * *

"Oi shrimp! Are you okay?" Gajeel appeared around the corner and ran to her. "You´re shaking, are you hurt?"

Levy shook her head. "No, I´m okay…" Gajeel felt relieved hearing that. "But I think we need a new tactic. I can´t handle them by myself – did you see the size?! It was almost as big as me!"

"Sorry shrimp, but they are bigger."

"They are _not _bigger than me!" Levy said angry and puffed up her cheeks.

Gajeel hid a smile. "They are."

"_No they are not!_"

Gajeel shrugged. "The once I faced was. They were closer to my height than yours."

Levy shuddered and Gajeel put his hand on her head, making her look up at him.

"Don´t worry shrimp. Just stay with me and you´ll be fine. Just don´t leave me, you are too hard to find."

Levy blushed a little, remembering his words at the S-class trial when they were partners. She nodded. "I won´t leave your side."

* * *

After their customer was finished informing them, Ana had taken them to a wait-room, telling them to wait there until she came back. She was going to take them back when the couples that were going to participate had been announced. There were too many that signed up, so they had to raffle which pairs that were going to participate. The Competition Hall was going to rig the raffle though, so that Natsu and Lucy became one of the participants.

Lucy sighed and sat down on the sofa. Natsu was restlessly walking around for a while, before he sat down too. They were silent for several minutes.

"Where did Happy go?" Lucy finally broke the silence.

Natsu pointed to a chair across the room where a happy and sleeping blue cat laid. "He fell asleep."

Lucy couldn´t help but laugh a little. "Is it because we found the inn so late?"

Natsu shrugged, glancing at looked at him. "Is something wrong, Natsu?"

"No, I…"

Whatever he was about to say never got said, as Ana opened the door and smiled at them. "Will you come with me, please?"

They rose, and Natsu took Happy in his arms, carrying him as they walked after Ana. Lucy wondered what Natsu would have said if Ana hadn´t come back so soon.

"We need to dress you up a bit", Ana said without even looking if they were actually following her. "I´m going to help you with that, of course, so don´t worry. I have the clothes and all, we just need to go there. I want you to have the outfits all week, okay?"

"Week?" Lucy asked.

"You didn´t think the competition only lasted for today, did you?"

"Well, no, but I didn´t know it was a whole week…?"

"Well, maybe not a whole week, but it was easier to say, as the days often vary."

"Ah, I see", Lucy said.

Ana smiled at Lucy over her shoulder before she turned her head forward. "We´re soon there."

They walked in silence. Lucy still wondered what Natsu had wanted to say, but she didn´t want to ask him either. And not when Ana was there.

_What´s wrong with me?! If it was something important, he would have told me!_

Lucy sighed silently, and then decided to ask Natsu, whom was walking next to her, carrying Happy. He still hadn´t waked him up?

"Hey, Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"What was it that you wanted to tell me before?" Lucy asked.

"Oh that. I was just going to ask if you were hungry too."

Lucy hid how stupid she felt. "Ah, well, no, I´m not."

"There´s food at our destination", Ana said.

_He´s hungry. Really, why am I feeling so disappointed? What did I expect it to be anyways?_

"Here", Ana said and opened a door. "Eat as much as you want, Natsu-kun."

"Thanks!" Natsu said happily. He put Happy on a chair. "Oi, buddy", he said softly. "Are you hungry?"

_He didn´t wake Happy through the whole time? __He would be quite the good dad…_

Happy woke up and they started eating.

"I´ll start with you then, Lucy-chan", Ana said and smiled. "Come with me."

They went through another door and Ana made a gesture towards a couple of dresses hanging. "Shall we see if one of these will fit?"

Ana made her try several dresses, but after a while only one had fit her good. It wasn´t very long, but about the same length as most skirts she wore. The skirt of the dress was pleated and the top didn´t show of too much cleavage either. Two thin straps were crossed at the back and the dress was light blue and golden.

"How beautiful", Ana said and smiled kindly at Lucy. "Those colors fit you very well, and the shape of the dress does nothing but flatter your body."

Ana´s words made Lucy blush a little. "Thank you, Ana-san."

Ana walked once around her, looking at her hair. "Shouldn´t we do something about your hair as well, Lucy-chan?"

Lucy smiled brightly. "I can take care of that part", she said and then grabbed her keys that were in the usual pocket on a strap around her right thigh. "Open – Gate of the Crab! Cancer!"

With bells ringing, the man appeared with the scissors ready in his hands.

"How cool!" Ana said amazed – she had never seen a Celestial Mage (or a Celestial Spirit) before.

"What can I do for you today, -ebi?"

"Ebi?" Ana questioned as she sweat dropped.

"Will you help me with my hair, Cancer?"

"Of course, -ebi."

Cancer worked fast and was finished very fast even though he tested several different hairstyles.

"That´s beautiful, Lucy-san, Cancer-san", Ana said.

"Thank you", Lucy said and eyed her hair.

"Do you like it, -ebi?"

"It´s really beautiful, thank you Cancer."

The spirit returned to the Celestial realm and Lucy looked at her hair from another angle. It was a simple baked braid, but embedded was pinkish pearls and reddish flowers.

"I better make sure Natsu-kun gets ready as well", Ana said and opened the door and went through it into the room where Natsu and Happy were waiting.

Lucy followed her slowly. When the door had opened, Natsu looked up. Ana walked over to him, but he was staring at Lucy who stopped just inside the door.

"Natsu-kun!" Ana said and slapped him on the arm – hard – to get his attention.

"Oi, that actually hurt!"

"You´re supposed to compliment your lady when she´s dressed up!" Ana lectured him.

Natsu looked at her confused for a moment and then looked at Lucy.

"You look nice, Lucy", he said and scratched the back of his head, looking away as he said it.

"Thanks", Lucy said, looking down to the floor, blushing a little.

"Well, shall we get you read too, Natsu-kun?" Ana said, and dragged him with her not waiting for his answer.

Lucy sat down in a chair and Happy came flying to her.

"Lucy, won´t you eat?"

"No, I´m not hungry", Lucy answered.

"It´s probably for the best", Happy began. "After all, you are very heavy."

A vein popped out on Lucy´s forehead. "What did you say?!"

"Waaah! Natsu, help me!"

* * *

"Ah", Cana said and stretched her arms over her head. "Finally, we´re here."

Jay yawned. She had just woke up.

"Oh, that´s right", Cana said, looking at her companion. "I´ve been meaning to ask you; don´t you get motion sickness?" Jay shook her head. "Is it only male dragon slayers that get it then? Cause Wendy doesn´t get it either."

Once again Jay shook her head. "No, I used to get it, but then I learned a healing spell."

"But I didn´t think dragon slayers could heal themselves? Wendy can´t", Cana said, a little confused and a little suspicious.

"No, I don´t think we can", Jay admitted. "But it´s another spell, not a dragon slayer spell. A friend of mine taught me long ago."

Cana nodded. "Hey…"

"Where is the mission?" Jay asked, hoping Cana would get the hint. She didn´t want to talk about it at the moment and didn´t want her to ask any more questions. Not about that. "I know it´s in the town, but where is it we should head?"

"It´s one of the local shops", Cana said. "I think I can find it."

"What´s the kind of shop? And the name? I can help you find it", Jay said.

"It´s called Manny´s and…"

"It´s a furniture and wood shop", Vei continued before Cana did.

"You know it, Vei? Have we been here?" Jay asked surprised.

Vei shook her head. "No, I don´t think so. I think I´ve been here before I met you."

"That´s great!" Jay said happily. "You start to remember things!"

Vei shrugged. "I hope so."

"You think you can find it too?" Jay asked.

"Maybe… I have a vague feeling of where it is…"

"Then lead the way", Cana said.

They followed Vei who flew a bit in front of them. All of the girls were holding their eyes open for something with a hint to where the shop was, and Jay was also breathing through her nose the whole time, trying to catch any scents.

"Vei has amnesia", Jay said to Cana. "I guess you wondered before."

Cana shrugged. "I kind of figured it out. How far back goes the amnesia?"

"We don´t know for sure. But she doesn´t remember anything of her life before she met me."

"So are you the one who named her to Venomous?" Cana asked a little surprised as it wasn´t a name she would have expected a young girl to name a cat.

"No", Jay said and shook her head. "That was the only thing she remembered. And later she also recognized the movements when using her swords, but that was all really."

Cana nodded and Jay smiled a little. "I´m glad she remembers something", Jay said quietly. "It´s not much, but something is better than nothing…" Jay suddenly looked up. "I smell something. Vei!"

Vei turned around. "Jay?"

"Where close, right? It´s left here, I think?"

Vei nodded. "I think so."

"Then let´s get going", Jay said excited and turned to Cana. "I want to start this mission as soon as possible!"

Jay set off running.

"Oi, Jay, wait up!" Cana yelled behind her.

Jay didn´t slow down, but she could still hear the two behind her.

"I´ll take you", Vei said. "Jay´s really fast, and she won´t stop now, she´s too determined for that."

They came up beside Jay. "Ever heard of waiting?"

"Yep, we waited for you at the train station", Jay answered Cana.

Cana sweat-dropped. "I waited for you…"

"You should have told us where we were supposed to wait", Jay said and smiled at her before turning her gaze forward.

_Finally, the mission will begin!_

* * *

**So, that´s this chapter. I hope you like it. It´s a little longer than I want to keep my chapters - I read a very smart thing that one of the writers to a story I follow does, and I decided to do that as well; keeping chapters under 3000 words. But I still keep them close to 3000. This does not include A/N, just so you know.**

**Oh well, put that aside - I have bad news. Or well, maybe not _bad_, but... I´m currently writing chapter 7 - in other words, I´m no longer a couple of chapters before, which means that I might have trouble to post weekly in te future. I will do my best to do it though, but I can´t promise anything. I´ll post chapter 7 next week, when I´m done with it.**

**Please let me know what you think so I don´t change anything you like - or so I can change what you don´t like.**

**Until next chapter´s posted - continue to have a great life!**


	7. Chapter 7: New strategies

_They came up beside Jay. "Ever heard of waiting?"_

_"Yep, we waited for you at the train station", Jay answered Cana._

_Cana sweat-dropped. "I waited for you…"_

_"You should have told us where we were supposed to wait", Jay said and smiled at her before turning her gaze forward._

_Finally, the mission will begin!_

* * *

**It´s so hard coming up with chapter names. I almost only get one of the happenings mentioned, like in this chapter and in the last one too. Although, in last chapter I might have gotten two of them, but still.**

**Well, here it is anyways, chapter 7!**

**(Edited 3/5: small mistakes, since I didn´t really read it before I posted it the first time...)**

* * *

_Chapter 7: New strategies_

As they arrived at the shop, which was a little bit smaller than Jay had expected, they didn´t wait to go inside. The shop´s inside was spacious enough, with fewer furniture put for showing than Jay had expected and the air was filled with the smell of trees.

"Welcome!" a man behind the desk with the cash register called out as he fast got up from a chair. "What can I do for you, ladies?"

"We´re the mages that accepted your request", Jay said.

"Ah, I see! Thank you", the man walked to them. "Thank you very much for accepting."

"Nothing to mention, tell us about the job already", Cana said impatiently.

"Ah, yes of course!" the man said, almost seemingly afraid of them brown haired woman. "As the request said, there have been several robberies lately."

"Yes, we remember", Vei said.

"Ah, I see. Well, the thing is that my business has been going a bit slow lately and I cannot afford to get robbed at the time. Your job is to catch the thieves."

"Well, let´s start already", Jay said, smiling. "What do you know about the thieves then?"

"Well… you see, I have been lucky and not gotten robbed, yet, but all the shops close by have been, so you have to do a bit of investigation."

Cana´s and Jay´s eyes met before Cana turned to the man with one eyebrow lifted. "You´re the only one who hasn´t gotten robbed?"

The man nodded. "As far as I know, yes."

"And your business been going bad?" Jay asked.

"Well, not bad, but less good than usual…"

"Are you sure you´re even going to be robbed?" Vei pointed out doubtfully, seeing where her two companions were going with their questions.

"Of course not… but it´s better to be on the secure side… after all, the business haven´t been going especially bad earlier – in fact, it´s been going quite good – so I have earned quite the money."

Jay nodded thoughtfully. "We better get going asking the other shop owners then."

Cana nodded. "Seems like it. Keep a close eye on that money of yours", Cana told the man before she left the store.

"See ya´ when we´ve caught the thieves", Jay said and waved over her shoulder as she followed Cana out, flanked by Vei.

* * *

"Before the competition starts, all couples will be introduced to the audience", Ana said to the two mages in front of her.

They made a beautiful couple, Lucy and Natsu. They matched more than you would think they would if you saw them separated. Since Natsu wore a plain white shirt, black slacks and his usual scarf, he looked nothing like Lucy in her light blue and golden dress. But if you looked closer you could see that Natsu´s shirt wasn´t plain white, it was a very, _very_, light blue and had faintly golden buttons. And the flowers in Lucy´s hair matched very well with Natsu´s pink hair. It was obvious when they sat next to each other, clearer than if they had had signs pointing down on them with the text "we´re matching".

"So that´s what we´ll do today?" Lucy asked.

Ana nodded. "Yes. Which is good for you, since then you can make sure your stories match. Just remember to make sure that you don´t mention you´re from Fairy Tail. The best would actually be if you don´t mention any connection to magic at all, since it will minor the chance that somebody recognizes you. Which reminds me – here", Ana said and threw them both a black, little piece of cloth. As Lucy caught it, she saw it was a glove. "Your guild mark's showing, Lucy-san."

"But why do I need one?" Natsu asked.

Ana smiled. "It´s cute. You´re a couple now, and those gloves will show that you´re meant for each other."

Lucy looked down on the glove to hide her blush. It was a simple, leather glove with open fingers. She put it on her right hand.

"This doesn´t fit", Natsu said and Lucy glanced at him.

"It´s because you´re putting a left handed glove onto your right", Lucy said and pulled it of his hand.

"But your guild mark is on the right hand", Natsu said, looking at her confused.

"Yes, and?"

"Well, shouldn´t we have gloves on our right hands then?"

"You have the other one", Ana cut in. "That´s a pair, I gave you one each but they´re usually used by one person on both hands."

"Oh", Natsu said and nodded as he pulled it onto his left hand. "I see."

Ana looked at her watch. "Oh, it´s time! Get off your lazy bums, you´re going on stage in a couple of minutes and I need to get you to the stage."

They did as she told them and followed her. Soon they arrived to a room with several people, everyone holding hands in pairs of two, or in some other way showed they were there together. Lucy understood they were their opponents in the competition.

"Hey, Natsu..." Lucy began. "Should we also…?"

"What?" Natsu asked as he looked at her with a little smile.

"…Nothing. It´s nothing."

Natsu shrugged and Lucy felt stupid. It wouldn´t be something weird to ask – after all, it was for the mission. But she couldn´t bring herself to ask him for some stupid reason.

_Are you in love with the boy?_

Jane-san´s words echoed in her head.

_Me? In love with Natsu? That´s crazy! It …_

Lucy felt a light pressure round her hand and looked down. Surprised she looked up at Natsu.

"We´re a couple now, right?" he smiled at her.

"Yeah", she said and her cheeks heated a little. She closed her own hand so she held his hand too.

… _It might be true, after all._

* * *

"Let´s get going already", Gajeel said impatiently.

"Is it really a good idea to split up?" Droy asked.

"It´s probably the best strategy. If we´re all in one group it´ll take longer time and we might scare them away", Levy said.

"Yeah, but…"

"Don´t worry about me, guys", Levy said and smiled at them. "I have Gajeel by my side, right?"

"Let´s go shrimp", Gajeel said and threw her over his shoulder.

"Hey, Gajeel! I can walk by myself!" she argued with him and hit him with her fist in his back several times. He just ignored her. "Gajeel!"

"Calm down, shrimp. You´ll just waste energy."

"Shut up and let me down already!" Levy said angrily.

"I don´t feel like it."

"Wha-what?" Levy´s eyes widened. Gajeel didn´t answer. Had he just said what she thought he said? Why did he say that?

"Finally calmed down now, shrimp?" Gajeel said and she could hear him smirking.

"Why can´t you just let me down already?" Levy sighed.

Gajeel shrugged. "If I hadn´t done this, we´d never got going and finished this stupid mission."

"But we´re long gone now", Levy pointed out.

Gajeel grunted something, and without even stopping he put her down. She followed him in silence for a while.

"Hey, Gajeel… the light…"

"What about it?"

"It´s starting to fade…"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it does!" Levy said angry. "Without it, we can´t see!"

"But with it, the cockroaches won´t appear", Gajeel pointed out.

He was right. "So what should we do then?" she asked.

"I can probably see without it, it´s just enough light in here for that. But you can´t, right?"

Levy agreed and Gajeel picked her up. She then sat on his shoulder and scared of falling off, she grabbed his hair.

"What are you doing?" she asked, a little panicked.

"Trust me on this shrimp. I´ll tell you when some appear and then you can use your magic and roast them. Just watch my head, don´t feel like having my hair on fire."

"…. Okay", Levy said. She did trust him, and she was glad he trusted her enough to let her use her magic so close to him.

As Gajeel continued forward, their only light source slowly faded and Levy saw less and less. As the light faded, she took a better grip on Gajeel.

"Are you okay?" Gajeel asked in low voice, noticing how her grip got firmer.

"It feels like I´m going to fall off", Levy said, almost trembling on her voice. She couldn´t see anything!

Gajeel stopped. "Then sit better."

Somehow – with a little help from Gajeel – she managed to change her position so she sat on both of his shoulders, one leg on each side of his head. She hooked her legs together and still held a firm grip in his hair so she wouldn´t fall off. Gajeel then continued to walk and Levy knew that she had to depend on him completely. A man who almost had killed her once. But who also had saved her life more than once. And she trusted him completely, and had forgiven him since long for what he did to her that time.

* * *

"This was a really easy job, Juvia", Gray pointed out.

"Juvia agrees."

They hadn´t had to stop any cheating at all and had just walked around all day talking. Almost like a date.

"Juvia?"

"Yes, Gray-sama?" Juvia couldn´t help getting a bit nervous.

"I saw the request. You know, if you want company, you can just ask me. You don´t need to come up with something. Okay?"

Juvia nodded, feeling embarrassed. "I´m sorry, Gray-sama."

"Don´t worry about it", Gray said smiling. "After all, this is quite relaxing. Almost as if I´m on vacation. And now Lucy and flame-brain can have some alone time."

"A-alone time?!"

Gray laughed a little at her reaction. "Why do you sound like that? Nothing´s going to happen between them, not with that idiot. Besides, Happy is with them."

_Alone time… Juvia would like to have some alone time with Gray-sama…_

"Then what do you call this?" Gray said smiling.

"Eh?!" Juvia realized that she had been thinking out loud and blushed madly.

"Well, it´s just you and me here, so this is what you would call alone time, right?"

"… Juvia guess that´s true, Gray-sama…" Juvia said, her face burning with the embarrassment she felt.

"How long is it left until they have decided the winner?" Gray asked.

"Juvia doesn´t know. But Juvia doesn´t think it´s much time left now."

Right after Juvia had answered, a voice called out telling all participants to come to the sign-up desk where they were going to announce the winner.

* * *

Erza headed out in the woods, in the direction she had been told the dark guild was supposed to be. The sun was slowly going down and the moon was on its way up. Day turned into night, and Erza stopped for a moment looking at the shifting colors in the sky. It was beautiful. For some reason the burning colors reminded her of Fairy Tail.

_I haven´t been on a solo mission for long now… I wonder how long it´s been since I was on a mission without my team?_

Erza shook her head. She needed to focus, or else she might get lost or go wrong. She needed to finish the mission before the sun went completely down so she could find back to the city later. She probably didn´t even walk for fifteen minutes before she felt as if the atmosphere in the forest around her changed. The feeling of good slowly started to fade and things got quieter. It was as if the vibrancy in the forest had been sucked away. Erza took it as a sign that she was getting closer to her goal.

After walking in her fast pace for two minutes, she thought she saw something, something _dark_. It didn´t belong in the peaceful forest. Erza walked a little further before she stopped, keeping out of sight of the dark guild. She was thinking out a strategy for how to get unseen to the fortress, when she felt a presence behind her. Fast as lightning, she turned around pointing several swords towards the presence.

"Who´s there? Show yourself!" Erza commanded.

Two hooded people came out.

"What are you doing here, Erza?"

* * *

"Shrimp…"

"I´m on it! Solid Script: Fire!"

As Levy called it out, fire appeared and she sent it forward, catching a glimpse of the giant cockroaches before they were burnt to ashes. The ashes glowed for a moment, the only light source they had.

"How many do you think it´s left?" Levy asked, starting to feel tired from using so much magic. Gajeel had helped her exterminate the cockroaches of course, but they had realized quickly that Levy´s Solid Script: Fire was much more effective.

"I have no idea. Think you can handle a couple more?"

"Definitely", Levy said determined and sounded more secure than she felt. But she had decided that she wouldn´t let Gajeel do it all just because he was stronger. This time she could do it better and she was going to continue, no matter what.

"Alright. Don´t fall off."

And Gajeel sat off, faster than before. He wanted to get the mission over with as soon as possible, just like her. The little light she had gotten from the ashes disappeared in a second and Levy clung harder onto Gajeel so she wouldn´t fall off. And because she was afraid, it was much scarier to travel faster in the dark, and Gajeel was practically running.

"Iron Dragon´s Roar", Gajeel let his breath out without stopping and continued running.

"Gajeel! Tell me next time!" He didn´t answer her. "Gajeel?"

"Something bigger waits ahead. We´ll need your magic more then. I can take care of the smaller once."

"Something bigger? What´s that? And how do you know?" Levy asked nervous.

"I can feel it", Gajeel said and she thought about his improved senses, "but I don´t know what it is."

Levy tried to swallow down her fear as they continued in the darkness. What were they going to find when they going to find further ahead? Something worse than the giant cockroaches?

"Is that… light?" Levy asked.

"I´m not sure", Gajeel answered, keeping his guard up.

Very far ahead of them, Levy could see a faint green glow. It was some kind of light and Levy slowly started to see better.

"What´s with the walls?" she whispered shaking a little on the voice. "What is that?"

"Don´t touch it. It smells weird", Gajeel said and Levy nodded.

The glow got brighter and brighter the further they went and the walls reflected the light. Levy stared at the walls, trying to understand what it was that covered the walls. It looked like some kind of liquid, a quite thick liquid, and it didn´t really seem to flow down the wall like a liquid should. It did flow downwards, extremely slowly, but it seemed at the same time move in some other way. She just couldn´t figure out how.

The air was starting to get harder to breathe, not because it was getting thinner or something like that, but because the air was heavy of a disgusting smell. She couldn´t figure out what it smelled like though. It was kind of metallic, but not quite. It was a bitter smell and at the same time it smelled a little like wet earth – a little mild.

Levy was starting to feel a little dizzy, as she looked at the reflecting walls. Her grip on Gajeel´s hair was starting to slip.

"Oi, shrimp! Keep it together!"

Levy jerked and shook her head to clear her thoughts. She gripped tightly at his hair again.

"Yeah, sorry. Thanks."

Gajeel only nodded.

They had begun to come closer to the source of the light and suddenly the light became so bright they got blinded. Levy let go of Gajeel´s hair with one hand to shadow her eyes and tried to see what it was that was in front of them and what probably was the source of the light.

"I can´t see anything, can you?" Levy asked Gajeel.

"No, we seem to be right in the beam of the light or something."

"Go a bit forth, but be careful. We have no idea how the ground ahead of us look."

Gajeel nodded and Levy kept her eyes on his dark hair, which still looked pitch-black even in the green light. His hair was surprisingly soft, it looked so messy and quite tangled but it really wasn´t.

_It´s a bit like himself. He looks like he´s rough and mean, but he can be gentle and kind too. His hair isn´t like you think it is, and neither is he. You have to get to know him to see how he really is, just like you have to feel his hair before you know what it really is like._

When Gajeel stopped and breathed in hard, Levy looked up to see what he was so surprised to see and gasped herself.

* * *

**What is Levy and Gajeel going to face? I hope you all want to know this. And who are the people who Erza met? I wonder if you can guess it…**

**This chapter is a little short, sorry – not my shortest though, but definitely noticeably shorter than chapter 6. Unfortunate, this was the best place to end it, because if I had continued it maybe would have gotten too long and it would just have been weird. It was better to end it there.**

**And I hope you still remember about my competition. Fifth review will get a prize from me (and if you can´t guess it, it will involve this story. I don´t remember if I told you this or not). So if you want something to happen, you better review! :)**


	8. Chapter 8: I didn t remember

_When Gajeel stopped and breathed in hard, Levy looked up to see what he was so surprised to see and gasped herself._

* * *

**Hello everybody! Here´s chapters 8, hope you´ll all enjoy it. New sum by the way, if anyone noticed. Big thanks to **_Lunaroid2906 _**who helpeed me come up with it.**

**Answer to review:**

Hestia (Guest): Awesome! You have to write another chapter!  
Pllllleeeeeaaaaasssseeee!

**I´m glad to hear you like it, Hestia! Ofc I was going to write more chapters, and in case you wonder – I try to update once a week, so I hope you´ll catch next chapter too if you like my story (which you seem to do:P). Thanks a bunch for your review, it´s always nice to hear what readers think!**

**Hestia´s review was my third review, which means there´s only two more reviews to go to get a prize (if you are interested in getting the prize, that is).**

**I´m really grateful for the review, since reviews motivates me as a writer and they also kind of make my day…^-^**

**WARNING! Spoiler alert in this chapter, so if you haven´t read the manga I apologize for this. (It´s in the end, so you might be able to avoid it. It´s not a very _big _spoiler, but it´s still a spoiler even if it doesn´t inform very much.)**

* * *

_Chapter 8: I didn´t remember_

It was time for all the participants to answer questions and as Lucy heard other couples stories from backstage, waiting for their own turn, she couldn´t help but feel as if their story was odd compared to the other couples' stories.

"Natsu", she whispered and dragged him down so she could whisper in his ear. "We haven´t come up with a story…"

"Story? What do you mean?" he asked with lowered voice.

"I mean what we´re going to answer."

"You´re weird Lucy, we´ll just say as it is", he laughed a little at her.

"But we´re not really a couple!" she hissed.

"… Oh…"

Lucy sighed. "What are we going to say?" she muttered to herself.

"Don´t worry ´bout it Luce, you´ll come up with something. You´re the smartest."

"Maybe not the smartest", Lucy muttered a little embarrassed and flattered. She was silent for a moment. "The best option would probably be to keep it as true as possible. But remember we´re not supposed to mention we´re mages."

"Got it, Luce."

"You´re up next", Ana pointed at them and waved them towards the entrance to the scene. "Good luck", she whispered and blinked with one eye as they passed her.

"And now", the host of the competition, Li, said, "it´s time to present our next couple. Give it up for Natsu and Lucy!"

The audience applauded politely, like they had done to every other couple, when Lucy and Natsu walked onto the stage, hand in hand. The crowd slowly got quiet as they went to sit in the couple´s couch and Lucy could hear some comments from the audience.

"Oh look, they´re matching, how cute!"

"They look _so_ good together."

"I like them already, they´re such an adorable couple, don´t you agree darling?"

Lucy could feel her face grow a little heated at the comments.

"Alright, Natsu and Lucy, how about we start this? How long have you known each other?"

Lucy looked at Natsu. "How long is it? Nine years?"

Nastu looked confused, trying to count in the seven years they were frozen in time. "Something like that…?"

"Wow, that´s a long time!" Lee commented surprised. "And you have been together for that time?"

"Not as a pair, no", Lucy said and shook her head. "But as very good friends. Natsu has been one of my best friends for a very long time now. But we´ve only become a couple quite recently.

"But you´ve knew each other for quite the while before you became a couple. How come you realized your feelings for each other?"

"I don´t know", Lucy began sincerely. "I think I just realized one day… that I didn´t feel for him as _just _a friend…" Lucy said and looked down as she blushed a little.

Her eyes fell on her hand still in Natsu´s with their fingers entwined. She blushed even more when she realized that she still held his hand. She couldn´t believe she forgot she held his hand! It just didn´t seem like anything unusual.

"And how about you, Natsu?"

Natsu was quiet for a while before he opened his mouth to answer the question. "I had never been in love before. I had no idea what it felt like to be in love. I guess that´s why it took me so long to realize how I felt. That the feeling I had for Lucy was different from how I felt for other friends."

Lucy looked at Natsu in the corner of her eye, her blush even deeper after his answer, without raising her head. He sounded so honest. It didn´t sound like something he would come up with just like that. And he didn´t really sound like himself either.

"Awww…" Lee breathed out, losing herself for a moment. "Ah, sorry. I… well, you noticed. Anyways; may I ask how you met?"

"It was in Hargeon", they said in one mouth.

"I was travelling through", Lucy said, "and I heard of a famous mage being close by, so I decided to check it out."

"I was looking for my father", Natsu said, "and I heard the nickname that mage had and thought it was my father."

"It wasn´t", Lucy said. "It was an impostor. He wasn´t even that mage and only used a Charm Spell to make girls flock around him. Natsu broke through the flock of girls and that broke the spell on me as it made me realize what had happened."

"Then she bought me lunch", Natsu said and grinned happily at the thought of food.

Even if they had changed the story a little, it still was the truth. Lucy thought about how lucky she had been to meet him and Happy that day. Not just because they saved her, and not just because they took her to Fairy Tail (even though she was lucky they had done that). They had become her nakama for life.

"A Charm Spell? Wasn´t those spells only possible to break if the victim knew about them, or if their soul mate appeared? How come Natsu managed to break the spell on you in first place?"

Natsu shrugged and Lucy looked down blushing. "I don´t know about that soul mate part", she muttered embarrassed.

"To the next question then", Li said, still with a ´that´s so cute´-smile on her lips. "You´ve just told us about your first meeting, now please tell us about your first kiss."

Lucy was taken aback. She wasn´t prepared for that question and had no idea how to answer. After all, this whole relationship-thing was fake and they had never kissed! She couldn´t just come up with something, could she?!

"It was on Christmas Day, last year", Natsu said and Lucy looked at him surprised. "We went to our job to celebrate with our friends. But one of our friends had put a mistletoe over the door and went in at the same time."

"So that was your first kiss?"

"Yes", Lucy said and was looking at Natsu with a surprised expression. "But I was so nervous, Natsu only kissed my cheek.

Li looked like she just had got hit in the face with cuteness and her dark orange eyes were opened wide. She squealed a little and made her two ponytails sway with her dark hair.

_Does he really remember that? _Lucy thought as she still eyed him. _I didn´t. I wouldn´t have thought that he… that Natsu, as the dense idiot he most of the time is...would remember that._

"Well…" Li began, "it seems as if I took up the last of your time. Even though we all would love to hear more about you, we´ll just have to wait. Thank you and good luck in the competition."

"Thanks", Natsu said and grinned towards Li. Lucy noticed a small blush appear on her cheeks and Lucy could definitely understand her.

"See you tomorrow", Li said and smiled at them.

"Mm!" Lucy smiled back at her before she and Natsu left.

They were still holding hands and Lucy squeezed his hand making him turn his head and smile towards her.

"We did it!" Lucy said.

He laughed. "We sure did."

Lucy was quiet for a moment.

"Hey, Natsu…?"

"Mm?"

"How did you come up with how you realized your feelings?"

"I don´t remember", he said and grinned as carefree as ever.

"Seriously, Natsu", Lucy sighed. "You´re just too much."

"What do you mean?" Natsu asked, frowning.

"Never mind!" she smiled innocently at him. "Let´s find something for us to eat, I´m getting hungry."

* * *

The two hooded people in front of her took of their hoods and Erza widened her eyes in surprise as she saw them.

"What are you doing here?"

Meredy giggled. "We asked first! But we´re here for that dark guild over there, they´ve caused a lot of trouble around nearby cities and the citizens have grown tired of the fear."

Erza frowned a little and looked over at the dark guild. Then she nodded. "I know. That´s why I got a request to take them down."

"You had the same plan?" Meredy asked as she smiled sweetly.

Erza nodded and then smiled at the girl. "You seem to have planned to take my work away from me."

Meredy smiled sheepishly. "We never would have if we´d known someone already was on their way here. Lucky it was you."

"Is it just you, Erza?" Jellal asked as he frowned. "Please tell me your team is here too."

Erza shook her head. "No, why?"

"You can´t storm the guild alone!"

Erza raised her eyebrows. "I can take care of myself."

Jellal looked down. "I know… but you have no idea how many it is in there."

"It´s not more than I can handle", Erza said calmly.

"How about this?" Meredy said, with a feeling of where Jellal was going with his statement. "We´ll help you take the guild down."

Erza thought for a brief moment before she smiled. "Why not?"

The following minutes, Erza and Jellal developed a strategy. Or rather, Jellal convinced Erza – not very successful – that it wasn´t a good idea to just charge head on and burst through their main entrance gathering all the members there. By doing that, they could just as well put blinking, neon signs over themselves saying: "come and get us all at once".

Finally Erza agreed to sneak in and not do it like she wanted: just kick the doors open and beat all of them to bloody pulps for being criminal...

Jellal took the lead and the two young women followed him quietly, close on his heels. Jellal chose to sneak by the bushes in the outskirts of the glade the fortress was in, looking for a place it would be easier for them to sneak up on the building. After walking for a couple of minutes, Jellal stopped and so did the girls.

"Here should be good", Jellal said as they were facing a windowless part of the fortress. "No one should be able to spot us."

"But there is no place for us to get into the building", Erza pointed out.

Jellal looked down on the ground. "I didn´t think about that…"

Erza looked at the building and then pointed a little further to the right. "There. It´s few windows over there, we can get through one of them."

"You have good eyes, Erza", Jellal said and smiled at her kindly. He then took the lead, leaving a slightly blushing Erza behind.

"Let´s go", Meredy said quietly to her as she followed him.

_I didn´t remember his smile was so… beautiful._

Erza shook her head to snap out of it and followed them.

"INTRUDERS!" a male voice called out and they realized they had been spotted.

"We need to get closer to the woods so they can´t surround us!" Jellal yelled to them.

Erza, who only was half between the woods and the fortress wouldn't have any bigger problems to do so, but Jellal and Meredy were much closer, Jellal almost being able to touch the fortress´ walls.

Erza stayed where she was, and Jellal and Meredy came up to her as they got further away from the fortress.

"Erza, what are you doing?! Let´s go!" Jellal took her wrist and was about to drag her with him.

"Let them come", Erza said as she looked him in the eyes. "If they all come here, we won´t have to find them all. And besides, we can handle them. I´m sure of it."

Jellal listened to her and then nodded. "You´re right."

They all turned to face the fortress and it didn´t take long until they saw people coming towards them, members from the guild.

Erza re-equipped so she had one sword in each hand and her two partners at the moment prepared to fight as well.

"Let´s go", Erza said as she ran forward and slashed her swords at the people in the front. They fell to the ground.

Erza continued to do this, but after a while, she re-equipped to her Heaven´s Wheels Armor to get rid of them all even faster.

"Circle Sword!"

With that attack, half of the members that had come at them were now down (in total, that is - members they defeated earlier counts as well). Erza turned to find next opponents and saw in the corner of her eye how both Meredy and Jellal defeated member after member in a fast pace.

_How can there still be so many left?_

Erza grabbed one of the members, a man who lay unconscious on the ground, by the collar of his shirt.

"You!" no response from the man, so she slapped him in the face.

The man´s eyes flew open and he screamed in a high-pitched voice: "Monster! Demon!"

Erza ignored him. "How many members do you have?"

The man just stared back at her defiantly and Erza pointed all her swords that were out at the moment towards him. And she ensured to have one pointed to his sensitive area. He gulped hard and Erza made sure he felt the cold metal of the sword she held in her hand against his throat as he swallowed.

"You still don´t want to answer?" she asked threatening.

"I… I don´t know! But not this many! This is Master´s magic, Sand Duplicate!"

"Sand Duplicate?" Erza said and then dropped the man to the ground. He crawled up to a ball, terrified.

Erza spotted Jellal and ran over to him just as he defeated a bunch of members.

"How can they be so many?" he muttered and wiped his forehead.

"It´s some someone´s magic", Erza said to him and he turned around to look at her. "Have you ever heard of Sand Duplicate?"

Jellal widened his eyes. "That explains it."

"You have?"

"Yes. The magic allows the mage to create people out of sand, or rather make duplicates of existing people. Do you know who the mage is? If we defeat the mage, all of the duplicates will turn back to sand."

"The guild Master", Erza said.

Jellal nodded. "Alright. Stay here and help Meredy, I´ll go and take care of him."

"No", Erza shook her head. "I´ll come with you. We have no idea how many still are in there, guarding him."

Jellal looked at her, but realized he wouldn't be able to change her mind.

"Fine, I´ll just go tell Meredy we´ll go in. I´ll meet you by the main entrance."

Erza nodded and they left in different directions. It didn´t take long before some members spotted her and she fought them off with her swords. But it was as if no matter how many she beat, another one just took the previous one´s place. They weren´t especially strong, but they were too many at once. She had to get going to the main entrance.

"Circle sword!" Erza called out and created a path for herself.

Erza started running and re-equipped into her Flight Armor, which enhance her speed. As she ran, she used her swords to take down enemies in the run. To Erza´s surprise, Jellal was already waiting for her when she showed up.

"Got stuck?" he asked with a teasing smirk as she arrived. Around him lay several unconscious members from the dark guild.

"Something like that", she answered as she came to a stop next to him. "Is the door open?"

"I never got to that part", Jellal said, but as they tried the door it was certainly looked.

"Not especially surprising", Erza said and re-equipped into The Giant´s Armor. "I´ll bust it open."

She re-equipped so she held the De-Malevo-Lance in her throwing arm, but in the wrong direction so that the part Natsu had hit when they had said they should destroy the moon on Galuna Island, pointed towards the door. She then threw it with all her might towards the door, smashing it open and making the door fly off the hinges. The door smashed against the wall opposite of the door and broke, sending splinters everywhere in the room.

_Maybe I overdid that a little…_

"Wow, good job, Erza!" Jellal said with a smile and they went inside, looking around to see if there were any enemies in there. "Where´s the Master?" Jellal asked as they couldn´t find anyone in the fortress.

"Maybe on another…?" Erza begun but then quieted down and pointed across the room, to the wall. "Found him."

They went over to the guild master and Jellal whistled low as he saw the man unconscious on the floor. "You sure knocked him out good, Erza."

"Hey, what happened?" they turned around and saw Meredy in the opening of the door. "All just fell to the ground and stopped fighting."

"Erza knocked the Master", Jellal said and pointed with a thumb over his shoulder at the man lying unconscious there.

"Nice work, Erza!" Meredy called out happily and smiled. "Then we´re done here!"

Jellal nodded and they all left the building. Erza looked at the sky. It was still sunset, although the day were just about to turn into evening.

"Are you staying in the city Erza?" Jellal asked.

Erza shrugged. "I don´t know for sure yet. "Are you or do you avoid cities?"

"We´ll set up camp in the woods", Meredy said, answering Erza´s question. "How about you stay with us, Erza?"

Both Erza and Jellal turned to look surprised at her.

"What´s with that look?" Meredy asked and shook her head. "You can tell us about your other missions."

"Alright", Erza said as she shrugged. "Why not? I don´t mind saving some money."

They set up camp and lit a fire. Jellal and Meredy shared some of the food they had saved away with her, and Meredy grilled some fish Erza catch in a nearby stream using one of her spears. Erza told them about her remaining missions to take down other dark guilds and Meredy suggested they should help her with them too. She then went to sleep, leaving Erza and Jellal alone, sitting by the fire.

"You cold, Erza?" Jellal asked as he saw her shiver and moved closer to her, putting his cape over her shoulders.

Erza glanced at him, his face so close to hers, making her blush. "Thanks…"

Jellal simply nodded, looking away into the fire.

"Jellal, where is Ultear?" Erza had been wondering for a while, ever since they ad aappeared in front of her.

Jellal didn´t move a muscle, even though something dark appeared in her eyes. "She´s gone."

Erza understood he didn´t want to talk about it and simply took his hand. "I´m sorry."

* * *

**So! I hope you all enjoyed to read so much about Erza. I know I haven´t had so much about her before, but it´s because I think Jerza and Gruvia is the hardest to write about, at least at the moment since there is so much happening with the others and I´ve had (and still partly have) a clear picture of what´s going to happen there. But I manage to squeeze out my imagination and create this chapter. And I hope you enjoyed the NaLu fluff before it, which was much easier to write than Erza´s part. I had that in my mind for a while, or I had a part of it in my mind and then I just created it all in a couple of minutes when I was riding the bus from Prague.**

**But aren´t I mean? Keeping what goes on over at Gajeel and Levy all to myself… guess you have to wait a little longer for that.**

**And this capter is way too long, almost 100 words... with this I just want to tell you that you shouldn´t expect all my chapters to be this long.**

**See ya next update, have a great life ´till then!**


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